Yankee Magazine March/April 2015

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A Most Unusual Gift of Love

THEPOEMREADS:

Dear Reader,

The drawing you see above is called The Promise. It is completely composed of dots of ink. After writing the poem, I worked with a quill pen and placed thousands of these dots, one at a time, to create this gift in honor of my youngest brother and his wife.

Now, I have decided to offer The Promise to those who share and value its sentiment. Each litho is numbered and signed by hand and precisely captures the detail of the drawing. As a wedding, anniversary or Valentine’s gift or simply as a standard for your own home, I believe you will find it most appropriate.

Measuring 14" by 16", it is available either fully-framed in a subtle copper tone with hand-cut double mats of pewter and rust at $135*, or in the mats alone at $95*. Please add $14.50 for insured shipping and packaging. Your satisfaction is completely guaranteed.

My best wishes are with you.

All major credit cards are welcomed. Please send card name, card number, address and expiration date, or phone between 10 a.m.-6 P M PST, Monday through Saturday. Checks are also accepted. Please allow 5-10 business days for delivery. *California residents- please include 8.0% tax

Please visit my Web site at

“Across the years I will walk with you— in deep, green forests; on shores of sand: and when our time on earth is through, in heaven, too, you will have my hand.”

60 /// Thoreau’s Maine: A Photo Story of an Epic Adventure

Guided by members of the Penobscot Nation, a group of intrepid travelers retrace Henry David Thoreau’s 1857 foray across 325 miles of rugged North Woods wilderness, deep into one of America’s last great untamed places. text by Mel Allen, photographs by Little Outdoor Giants

74

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‘My New England’ Photo Contest

Yankee readers capture the spirit of our region, in all its eclectic glory. text by Mel Allen

78

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Stories Beneath Our Feet

The beeps and warbles of a metal detector reveal centuries-old treasures large and small. by Julia Shipley

84

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The Single Soldier

The silent bronze and stone infantrymen of New England’s Civil War memorials bear witness to the 150th anniversary of the end of our deadliest conflict. by Castle Freeman

86

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The Memory Keepers

The best of New England’s small history museums call to us to remember our shared heritage, preserving lives that mattered and the stories they tell. by Howard Mansfield

A finely crafted wood-and-canvas canoe, made by Maine Guide Kevin Slater for the Thoreau 150 expedition, heads south down the Lower East Branch of the Penobscot River (story, p. 60). photograph by Little Outdoor Giants

Mike Wilson, senior program director for Maine’s Northern Forest Center. “This is the Alaska of the East,” he says. “We want people to know that the woods hold the potential to change a life.”

48 /// The Chowder Trail

We scoured our six-state region to find “the best” recipes for New England’s favorite winter warmer, from classic clam to creamy corn.

by Naomi Kooker

56 /// Local Flavor

Michael Landgarten, owner of Bob’s Clam Hut in Kittery, Maine, shares the unique story behind this legendary local eatery’s dueling fried-seafood recipes.

by Amy Traverso

58 ///

Recipe With a History

Crispy-yet-tender fish cakes (with homemade tartar sauce): Yankee ’s assistant editor reinvents a celebrated old-time New England staple for today’s home kitchens.

by Aimee Seavey

YANKEE ’S MOSEYER

More of the Yankee you love is a simple tap away. Download the Yankee Connect app today to get quick and easy access to all of our bonus digital content right on your smartphone.

How it works

2

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With the app active, hold your phone over the photos marked with the bonus content symbol to launch a new video, slideshow, or audio file. For best results, the distance between phone and page should be about 7 inches.

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EDITOR: Mel Allen

ART DIRECTOR: Lori Pedrick

MANAGING EDITOR: Eileen T. Terrill

SENIOR LIFESTYLE EDITOR/ FOOD, HOME & GARDEN: Amy Traverso

SENIOR EDITOR: Ian Aldrich

PHOTO EDITOR: Heather Marcus

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Joe Bills

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Aimee Seavey

INTERNS: Taylor Thomas, Lila Trowbridge

CONTRIBUTING LIFESTYLE EDITOR: Christie Matheson

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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Annie Card, Edie Clark, Tim Clark, Jim Collins, Annie Graves, Ben Hewitt, Justin Shatwell, Ken Sheldon, Julia Shipley, Caroline Woodward

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Julie Bidwell, Kindra Clineff, Sara Gray, Corey Hendrickson, Matt Kalinowski, Joe Keller, Joel Laino, Jarrod McCabe, Michael Piazza, Heath Robbins, Kristin Teig, Carl Tremblay

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It’s the 10TH WILD YEAR of WINDOWS TO THE WILD! Join us for a new season with host WILL LANGE. Explore New England’s wild places and meet people who share their love of the outdoors.

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YANKEE PUBLISHING INC.

established 1935

PRESIDENT: Jamie Trowbridge

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Judson D. Hale Sr.

VICE PRESIDENTS: Paul Belliveau Jr., Jody Bugbee, Judson D. Hale Jr., Brook Holmberg, Sherin Pierce

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER: Ken Kraft

CORPORATE STAFF: Mike Caron, Linda Clukay, Sandra Lepple, Nancy Pfuntner, Bill Price, Christine Tourgee

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CHAIRMAN: Judson D. Hale Sr.

VICE CHAIRMAN: Tom Putnam

DIRECTORS: Andrew Clurman, H. Hansell Germond, Daniel Hale, Judson D. Hale Jr., Joel Toner, Cor Trowbridge, Jamie Trowbridge

FOUNDERS

ROBB & BEATRIX SAGENDORPH

Do you know how the term “Nantucket sleigh ride” was coined and what it means today? Have you ever been called a “goofer,” and would you even want to be? Does the way you order an ice-cream treat mark you as a native New Englander? And would you be surprised to learn that “Podunk” was once a real place? Learn more about our unique New England dialect at: YankeeMagazine.com/Lexicon

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DIGITAL BONUS!

Go behind the scenes of Yankee’s March/ April issue with editor Mel Allen (p. 10).

Discover the joy and hard work that went into rebuilding one couple’s 19th-century Connecticut home (pp. 110 and 115).

Unearth the discoveries and treasures that fuel one Vermont group’s love of metal detecting (p. 81).

Follow along on an epic journey into Maine’s North Woods (pp. 64, 65, 68, and 72).

Our annual travel issue is back, with more than 300 editors’ picks for “Best of New England,” while we also celebrate New England’s national parks and landmarks. From famed Acadia National Park to protected historic treasures, you’ll be surprised at the breadth and variety you’ll find in our compact six-state region.

Memories Everywhere

ometimes the theme of a particular issue comes together by accident. Loose threads start tying together and there it is, as if we’d planned it: connections, a theme, making us look more clever than we are. This issue wasn’t like that. Because this is Yankee ’s 80th-anniversary year, we decided months ago that memory would be a fitting theme. Senior lifestyle editor Amy Traverso has devoted our annual special home section to New Englanders’ love affair with old houses (p. 101). When you own and live in a house with two centuries (or more!) of memories within its walls, the voices that once were heard here don’t ever grow totally silent; they linger with us like specks of dust. The pages in this section tell a modern story of people who will do almost anything to breathe life back into old houses, where age is to be revered, as if each were an elder with wise stories to pass along. Those of us who live in such a house know they do.

There are people who know that there are stories from the past that lie where we can’t see them, just beneath our feet. With judicious use of metal detectors, they search for forgotten objects that once were carried in pockets or in careless hands, or perhaps—let the story evolve—dropped in haste. When they emerge, it’s as though they’re finding a voice long trapped, now given another chance.

“Stories Beneath Our Feet” (p. 78) may well prompt some readers to find a local treasure-hunting club—and yes, we tell you how to do that, too.

“The Memory Keepers” (p. 86) asks whether we can still find meaning in New England’s countless small history museums and historic houses, the places where the sorts of things that our ancestors once touched every day wait for new eyes in carefully tended rooms. With so much information swirling past us at storm-like speed every day, will new generations care how New Englanders once lived? It’s fitting that truly only time will tell.

Finally, the past merges with the beating heart of today in our new Yankee Connect app. What is it? Free in the iTunes and Android app stores, it lets readers use their smartphones to scan selected pages of the magazine to bring up extra content (slide shows, videos, audio files) right on their mobile devices. Just look for the bonus-content symbols in the magazine. Our “On the Web” page (p. 8) tells you how to use this feature and what content you’ll find. When you use this new technology to view more photos, or to listen to an interview about a story from a past era, it’s truly like hearing two beating hearts, each one vital to those of us living today.

Mel Allen, Editor editor@YankeeMagazine.com

Photographers

Jarrod McCabe and Dominic Casserly call themselves the “Little Outdoor Giants,” but in joining the Thoreau 150 journey (“Thoreau’s Maine,” p. 60) there was nothing little about their work ethic or their ability to meet any challenge—whether toting 80-pound canoes over rockstrewn, mud-soaked terrain, or lying atop boulders in a fast river to capture a Master Maine Guide’s eddy turn. In Yankee’s 80 years, their photo story is the most ambitious we’ve ever undertaken. “You can’t help but be part of us,” expedition leader Mike Wilson told them, and they earned the respect of everyone during their 16-day journey. “It was our best assignment ever,” they agreed.

Mel Allen

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In the Middle of the Night

There’s a part in all of us that hopes we’ll bloom when darkness falls.

few years ago, I advised a woman on writing her memoir. I’d known Mary Liz for a few years before that, and once, she showed me an essay she’d written about a plant that she’d been coddling for the past 50 years. It was a night-blooming cereus, a gangly, cactus-like plant that’s quite drab and ordinary most of the time. A few times a year, though, the Night Bloomer develops buds on its spindly branches, and, somewhat unpredictably, they burst into bloom—but only in the middle of the night. By morning, they’re like broken party balloons hanging limply from their branches. They leave behind a powerfully sweet, haunting fragrance that lingers into the daylight.

Hers since the 1960s, when she rescued it from a friend’s garbage, the Night Bloomer has taken Mary Liz through the many phases of her life. In her heyday, she and her husband, Bruce, and friends often sat through the night to observe and celebrate the magnificent revelation of the mysterious flower. Corks popped as the astonishing starburst of a purewhite blossom slowly unfurled. Eventually, Mary Liz and Bruce moved to a retirement community. Fortunately, the facility had a greenhouse, where they installed the favored plant. They no longer stayed up till 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, but instead, on the night of the bloom, other residents padded down the hall to the greenhouse in robes and slippers to watch the show, toasting paper cups of champagne (or perhaps ginger ale) to the explosive white blossom before retiring to their apartments.

Soon after they moved to the retirement home, Bruce died. They’d been sweethearts since the seventh grade. After some time had passed, Mary Liz started sending a weekly e-mail to her friends and family, just to let them know how she was doing. I was one of the lucky recipients. She was, as she put it, “in my end game, the last stop on my life’s journey,” yet she clearly didn’t want to be the grieving widow. These messages accumulated, full of fond memories, upbeat reports, serendipitous encounters, and, of course, updates on the Night Bloomer. I was impressed by her candor and her fearless approach to this “end game.” As well, the plant seemed like a metaphor for her discreet, concealed life of joy. I suggested to Mary Liz that together we could use these e-mails to create a memoir and track the progress of her loss. We met weekly. We spent probably a year on this project, excerpting from the e-mails and knitting them together, and then Mary Liz filled in some gaps, which required her to feel the loss all over again. It was hard work, but she put her shoulder to the wheel and proved herself a fine assignment writer.

Mary Liz titled her memoir Night Bloomer: Reflections on Good Grief. At the end, the 90-year-old Mary Liz wrote this: “I am blooming, perhaps not as exotically as my Night Bloomer, but day by day, week by week, flourishing, moving into a letting go of my own.”

Mary Liz rewarded me with a cutting from her old Night Bloomer. It looked precarious, but I knew what lurked within. I repotted it and set it in a sunny window in my dining room. One day I sensed an overpowering perfume. Whose was that? I wondered. I went into the dining room and saw the bedraggled blossom. I had missed the show. For the Night Bloomer, vigilance is essential, and the search for meaning lasts longer than a midnight toast. Like life, I never know when the bloom is coming.

Edie Clark’s latest book is What There Was Not to Tell: A Story of Love and War

Order your copy, as well as Edie’s other works, at: YankeeMagazine.com/store or edieclark.com

When the lobster trap is on its way up to the boat, you don’t know what you’re going to find. Lobsterman Herman Coombs finds hi s livelihood in there. Every day, in the cold of winter or the heat of summer, he’s out on the water checking any number of his 800 homemade lobster traps. Despite his lobstering schedule, Herman, his wife Monique and their two kids still make time to enjoy coastal life with that un ique Maine enthusiasm. They frequent family festivals, visit the many beaches and yes, they even fish. It’s simply what Mainers do. Won’t you join them? Be inspired. Be adventurous. Be yourself. Discover your Maine Thing. To learn more, go to VisitMaine.com.

A Fine Season

Lingering cold, slow-running sap, mud up to your ankles …

How could life be better?

y the time March rolls around, it seems as though winter will never end. In one sense, there’s nothing unusual about this; in northern Vermont, there always comes a time when it seems as though winter will never end. But in another sense, this March truly is different. Already, we’ve awakened to find the thermometer on the cruel side of zero enough times that it no longer seems remarkable. The snowbanks along the sides of our quarter-mile driveway tower high above our heads. Our Subaru squeezes between them, but just barely, a life-size slot car. One more storm and I’ll have to use the tractor to widen the path, an hours-long task I do not covet.

The storm comes, of course, and it’s the biggest of the season thus far, delivering another 16 inches of snow. I spend three frigid hours on the tractor and don’t finish. The snow is followed by yet another series of 10- and even 20-below mornings that are no colder than so many previous mornings but somehow feel that way, if only because we know what the month is capable of. Where is the sun? Where is that day that portends the season to come, the sound of melting snow drip-

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PENNY HEWITT CABOT

ping from the eaves and the exuberant sense of the world awakening? Where is that certain musky smell of the earth revealed after months of cover?

And where, oh where, is the first sap run? We’d hung our 60 buckets in late February, remembering how we’d missed the first good runs both seasons prior. The old adage of being “tapped in” by Town Meeting—the first Tuesday in March—is no longer reliable, because in the 21st century, the season may be halfway over by the time Town Meeting rolls around. So we tapped the last week of February, and I felt awfully smug about it. “It’s nice to be ready in time,” I remarked to Penny. “We’ll definitely get the first run this year.”

Then came a gusting wind, and we trudged down the field on snowshoes to take the buckets down so that they didn’t end up blown to places we wouldn’t find until long after the season was over. Even on snowshoes, we struggled and tripped through the snow, leaving deep, sunken tracks. After the wind, we hung the buckets again, but then came another storm and still more wind. This time we didn’t take the buckets down, and they blew off the trees; though we didn’t lose any, we cursed our laziness and trudged down the field to hang them yet again.

Finally, sugaring season arrives. It’s early April, a full month later than nor-

mal, and the sap flows reluctantly, as if the trees are struggling to awaken from a deep sleep. The first run is modest; when we reach the buckets, they’re only a third full, each drip from the tap isolated by a long silence while the next drop collects at the end of the spout.

The snow is still deep, and I pull the gathering buckets in the sled across

the soft swells of Melvin’s pasture. Rye comes with me to stabilize the sled from behind; without his help, it would tip over in the deep trough left by my snowshoes. By the time we arrive at the evaporator, there’s sweat on my brow and I can feel oxygenated blood pumping through my limbs, like sap rising in my body.

Rye and I pour the contents of the gathering buckets into the pan atop the old backyard evaporator that we bought many years ago from a fellow who’d come to his senses and chosen to divest himself of all his sugarmaking apparatus. “It’s an awful lot of work for not much return,” he told me, only after he’d secured in a back pocket the fold of $20 bills I’d handed him. He shook his head and repeated himself: “An awful lot of work.”

He was right, of course. It is a lot of work. Maybe even an awful lot of work. But standing by the evaporator with my family, as the fire crackles and the first tendrils of steam rise from the heating sap, I’m grateful for the effort necessitated by our simple operation. I know that in the morning I’ll feel it in my muscles and I’ll like how it feels. It feels honest. It feels human. It means that when spring arrives and suddenly every day there’s more to do than the day can possible accommodate, we’ll be ready. Or at least more ready than we’d be if we hadn’t sugared.

OPPOSITE : Jars of fresh maple syrup bask in the spring sunshine. THIS PAGE , FROM TOP : Ben and Rye, age 9, gather sap to haul back to the evaporator; Fin, age 12, and Rye help their dad check the temperature of the steaming syrup in the evaporator.

Rye and I have gathered only 25 gallons of sap, but it’s sweeter than normal, and our haul produces nearly a gallon of finished syrup. Later, a friend tells us that when the season is compressed, as this one will be, the trees make up for it by producing sap with a higher sugar content. I don’t know whether that’s true, but there’s no question that it’s sweeter this year than any year in memory.

We drink it straight from the sap buckets and later from the evaporator pan, drawing it off into an old enamel cup that holds permanent residence on a nearby stump. If there were no other reason to sugar—no finished syrup, no muscles strengthened, no quiet evenings by our unsheltered evap orator, noticing how each day is now longer than the preceding one—drinking warm sap with my family as the returning geese hurtle through the sky just above our heads would suffice. A man could want for more, I suppose. But that would be greedy.

There’s no roof over our evaporator; there are no walls around it. The four of us sit on stumps as we boil. The boys carve wooden bows, and Penny whittles a spoon. I play my guitar or work on one of the chainsaws; every so often one of us rises to stoke the fire with the slabwood stacked nearby.

From our vantage point, we can see the pond, and we note the progression of spring in the ice’s retreat. One day, Rye throws a block of wood onto the ice and it doesn’t break through. The next day, the wood is gone, the ice beneath it having succumbed.

tinctive, almost bitter, taste of a lateseason crop. We’ll use it for baking.

The buddy sap brings an end to our season, but we’re happy, because buddy sap means budding trees. It means that we’ll soon see a color we’ve seen little of for nearly seven months: green.

We pull our taps, having made just over four gallons of syrup, less than half our usual total, and we’re happy

The sap runs again a couple of days later and a couple of days after that, but, like the first, they’re halfhearted runs. Even on the idealized 50-degree days that follow the idealized clear, cold nights, the trees seem unwilling to relinquish, and we rarely gather more than 20 gallons of sap at a time. Still, our stash of syrup slowly grows: a gallon, then a gallon and a half, then two. Our first heavy run comes in late April, but by then the sap has gone “buddy,” and the resulting syrup has that dis-

that Rye has boiled a half-gallon of his own from trees he tapped deep in our woods. He boils in a big pot over an open fire, an arrangement that requires long hours of tending and of hauling firewood from the stacks he made last summer. But now he’s running low on wood, and when Penny and I suggest that he combine his sap with ours, it’s as if we’ve offended him. “No way,” he says. “This is my syrup.” He turns back to his pot, the sweet steam rising all around him.

FROM LEFT : Rye welcomes a newborn lamb into the Hewitt menagerie; wispy spring seedlings get a head start on the porch.

The energy of the season is everywhere. New lambs cavort in the barn, bouncing in that way only lambs can bounce, as if the world were a trampoline.

The energy of the season is everywhere. New lambs cavort in the barn, bouncing in that way only lambs can bounce, as if the world were a trampoline. The cows begin shedding their thick winter coats, and tufts of fur drift across the lawn like miniature tumbleweeds. The grass is going to come in late; we count and recount the bales of hay that remain, dividing them by the probable number of days until we can turn the animals out to pasture. We think we’ll make it, but it’s going to be tight. It always is, but this year it’ll be tighter.

As happens every spring, there comes a morning when the remaining layer of snow has frozen hard enough to support the weight of the boys on their bicycles, and they take off across Melvin’s field, whooping in the cold. As I did last year, I promise myself that after chores I’ll join them. And like last year, I don’t, which leads to another promise: that next year I will. The boys are 12 and 9 now; they’ll be gone before I know it. I’d better act on my promise soon.

For a time, a torrent of water runs directly through the front yard, the result of heavy snowmelt from the big banks along the driveway. It forms a small river we must ford on every trip to and from the barn. We prepare for the basement to flood, which has hap-

pened in years with far less snow. But for reasons I can’t explain, the flood doesn’t happen, and we’re buoyed by this stroke of luck. We put the skis and snowshoes away. The snow shovels go back to the basement, and our porch fills with seedling flats, little shoots of green in a world that’s still brown.

For two weeks, there’s mud everywhere: in the yard; on our shoes; on the cuffs of our pants; under our fingernails. I can trace the progress of Daisy, our bluetick coonhound, across the living-room floor. The boys kick off their boots and mud splatters against the wall. There’s mud in the kitchen and even in the bathroom. After lunch, we mop it up, but by dinner it has returned.

Now the trees are leafing out in full. Now the tadpoles emerge. The boys catch them and hold them in their palms, before releasing them back to the spring-cold water. They do this over and over again, partly for the thrill of the chase, and partly to feel that slippery new life tickling their skin.

We take down the sap buckets and cart them across the snowless field to be cleaned and stowed away. We pull

taps. We rinse and dry the hauling vessels. We scrub the evaporator pan and empty the arch of ashes. The winter that only a month ago seemed as though it would never end is over. The spring and summer that will surely seem as if they end much too quickly have begun.

Four gallons of syrup. It’s not much. I could say that it wasn’t a very good season and I wouldn’t be lying. But the truth is, it was a fine season. It always is.

Learn how to make syrup on a shoestring at: YankeeMagazine.com/Sugar

Yankee’s editors and author Ben Hewitt understand that the term “Northeast Kingdom” popularly refers to Orleans, Essex, and Caledonia counties in northern Vermont. We’ve taken a bit of artistic license in asking Ben Hewitt to write about his family and fellow Vermonters who may live outside those boundaries, because the term “the Kingdom” captures perfectly the mindset and singular way of life that Yankee has always respected.

Ben Hewitt’s newest book, The Nourishing Homestead: One Back-to-the-Land Family’s Plan for Cultivating Soil, Skills, and Spirit, was published in February by Chelsea Green.

FROM LEFT : Rye, Fin, and their feline friend scope out a pool of meltwater; the boys pedal their bicycles across the last of the snow.

First LIGHT

A bald eagle soars majestically above the forest along the southern Vermont/New Hampshire border.

A bald eagle soars majestically above the forest the southern Vermont/New Hampshire border.

OPPOSITE : Chris Martin, senior biologist with New Hampshire Audubon’s Conservation Department, in the field.

OPPOSITE : Chris Martin, senior biologist with New Hampshire Audubon’s Conservation Department, in the field.

ONLY IN NEW ENGLAND : Keepers … pp. 22–23

KNOWLEDGE & WISDOM : Facts & stats … p. 24

THE BEST 5 : House Museums … pp. 26–27

LOCAL TREASURE : Revere Lantern … p. 28

UP CLOSE : Quonset Huts … p. 30

Back Among Us

BY CINDY ANDERSON

y noon we’ve peered through the spotting scope countless times. We’ve eaten the snacks and played okay-you-keep-the-ball with a passing Rottweiler. Eagle observation, it turns out, is largely a matter of hurry-up-and-wait.

“Could be anytime now,” says Chris Martin, a kinetic man in rain boots and an orange sweatshirt—and, as a senior biologist with New Hampshire Audubon, also the Granite State’s preeminent raptor specialist. He squints into the scope, trained on a cottonwood tree on an island 150 yards offshore in the Vernon Dam impoundment of the Connecticut River. No sign yet of the other bald eagle, the mate to the one in the nest.

I take a look. The eagle sits with its back flattened, a sign of incubation. The pair has been taking turns in the nest for a month, and the eggs—Martin isn’t sure how many—should hatch soon. If all goes well, the pair will fledge full-sized juveniles 12 weeks from now, which amounts to four supercharged months of parenting.

The grass underfoot is a tender new green. Two days ago it was balmy, yesterday it snowed— New England springtime, perhaps with an overlay of climate change. Today is mild again, and the bushes are alive with songbirds, but snow lingers at the bases of newly budded trees. During the time the eagles are incubating eggs, Martin says, they endure everything from snow to 90-degree heat to torrents of rain.

They can take it. The national bird, Martin notes, is hardy and adaptable, a “generalist” that can live in a range of habitats and eat anything from fresh fish to days-old roadkill. Eagles manage New England winters without trouble, and they have few predators apart from nest raiders like raccoons and fishers.

Historically it’s been humans that eagles have to worry about. “We really did a number on them,” Martin says, referring to the pesticide use and habitat destruction that nearly caused the species’ extinction. But in the post-DDT era, eagles have made a recovery. In February 2014,

An eagle sighting can stay with you for a lifetime.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOEL LAINO

wildlife experts counted the Granite State’s highest one-day total in 30 years: 69. After near-annihilation and a decades-long absence, eagles are back among us.

This site in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, is unusual in that several birds of prey, including ospreys and peregrine falcons along with the eagles, nest in proximity to one another—and alongside the aggregate of human enterprise. The Vermont Yankee nuclear-power plant sits across the impoundment; a TransCanada hydroelectric facility operates at the dam; and power lines run east to west. Beneath the birdsong is the constant thrum of machinery.

1:30 p.m. The nesting eagle waits— instinctively, iconically. Eagles are the largest raptors in eastern North America, Martin tells me, with wingspans of up to seven feet. Females are larger than males. The bird on the nest is likely female, since females do the majority of the incubation.

As Martin speaks, he scans the surroundings: woods, riverbank, sky. You never know what might show up. Sure enough, a dark spot in the sky becomes an avian silhouette, becomes not the awaited eagle mate but an osprey, banking toward a power-line tower. Martin scrambles to resite the scope. “Here, watch him come in,” he says. “They’re working on their nest, so he probably has a stick. Does he?”

I tell him no stick, that the bird in the nest rose and lifted her tail as her mate flew in. There was a flurry of wings, and then he was off again. Martin laughs: “Mating. They’re getting to know each other again after wintering apart.”

Meanwhile, all is quiet on the eagles’ nest. Eagle pairs don’t winter apart; season after season in their 20-year lifespan they remain together in the vicinity of their nest—though generally not in it. The nest, Martin explains, is more like a nursery than a home. The eagles incubate eggs and raise chicks

there, but their home is more akin to the whole tree and its environs.

There’s a rustling in the trees. A man emerges: Bill Dean, self-described eagle fanatic, dressed head to toe in camou flage, including a camo Harley–Davidson cap. An eagle tattoo covers the right side of his neck. Dean is so smitten that he spends all his time off from his job at a plastics plant observing and photographing eagles. He tells

Martin that he’s just come from four hours at the second Hinsdale nesting site. The two men admire the shots he took: an eagle in flight, wings spread; close-ups of both birds at the nest.

In his work for New Hampshire Audubon on behalf of the state’s Fish & Game Department, Martin needs people like Dean, serious hobbyists who know the eagles well. “They’re my eyes on the ground,” he says. Vol-

TOP : For raptors, there’s superb fishing from the Connecticut River impoundment created by the Vernon Dam, between Vernon, Vermont, and Hinsdale, New Hampshire. This view is from the east (NH) side. ABOVE , FROM LEFT : An adult eagle and her chicks nest high above the river; signs along the shore warn visitors away from critical nesting areas.

unteers log hours of observation, help band birds, install predator guards. Martin views his own role as raptor protector and advocate—and as communicator. He’s written magazine pieces and is the voice of Audubon on a weekly radio segment. “I really want people to understand what’s out there,” he says.

When the eagle mate still hasn’t shown up by 2:30, we head to the second nesting site. Martin carries “Keep Back” signs that he’ll post around the nest. Later, as he pounds them in— in the woods, away from the path, so as not to inadvertently advertise the site—the nesting eagle will crane her neck to watch, seemingly less wary than curious. Martin is rooting for her during what can be a fraught undertaking. Last year she and her mate (a young, leg-banded male from New York) hatched eggs; then suddenly one day their nest was empty, the eaglets likely stolen by a predator.

The walk to the nest takes a halfhour. Downstream from the dam, the river is turgid and spring-swollen. Ring-necked ducks swim in pairs, and the smell of freshly spread manure hangs heavy. Around a bend, the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant comes into view. Martin points out an apparatus on the side of a smokestack: a nesting box for a pair of peregrines.

Then, as we round another bend, incredibly, it happens: An eagle is there, flying overhead. The birdsong quiets, the industrial hum drops away, until I hear—I’m sure I hear—the sound of wing against air. The eagle dips, then banks right, headed downstream with outstretched wings, all but filling the sky.

For a list of favorite eagle-sighting sites around New England and a slide show of stunning photos, go to: Yankee Magazine.com/Eagles

Cindy Anderson is a longtime Yankee contributor. Her Maine-based story collection, River Talk (C&R Press), was named to Kirkus Reviews ’ Best Books of 2014.

Jeepers, We’re Keepers

BY

ACCUMULITIS

Also known as “usefulness delusion disorder” (UDDER), this sickness is identified with the statement “I might need this someday.” People with accumulitis won’t throw out old newspapers in case they need to start a fire, even if they haven’t owned a woodstove in 20 years. The opposite condition, tossitosis, is a tendency to discard old lamp parts, batteries, and mismatched gloves simply because they have no real value—if you can imagine.

SENTIMENTSIA

This is the tendency to keep things that remind one of treasured memories: the junk car you had in high school, the ticket stub from the drive-in theatre you went to on a date 30 years ago, the marriage certificate that resulted from that, and the two marriage certificates after that. Of course, some items have enduring significance: Grandma’s wedding ring, Grandma’s hand-crocheted potholders, Grandma’s dentures. New Englanders may be more prone to sentimentsia because we live in such an old part of the country; people from Malibu are notoriously unsentimental. And warmer.

COLLECTOMANIA

This classic condition involves an obsession with collecting items related to a particular theme. Common examples of the malady include “Red Sox memorabilism,” “Old Man of the Mountain spotted fever,” and “lighthouse tchotchketiasis.” Sometimes, trying to find something everyone else isn’t collecting, people with this condition may venture into truly bizarre territory, such as collecting ketchup packets from around the world. In extreme cases, a collection takes over and sufferers have to move out of their house and turn it into the “Beer Coaster Museum.”

It’s spring — time to clean house, jettison junk, and dispense with debris. But that isn’t easy for New Englanders, most of whom seem to be afflicted with a disease known as clutteropathy

Researchers have identified six different strains of this disorder.

KEN SHELDON

HYPERCRAFTIA

Symptoms of this condition are shelves and closets overflowing with ribbon, glitter, and yarn. Victims have a hard time throwing out even ordinary things, since just about anything can be used in crafts, including coffee cans, margarine tubs, and dryer lint. Teachers and Scout leaders are especially susceptible to this ailment, which seems to peak with the onset of holiday fairs and craft shows. Medical researchers point to an upsurge in hypercraftia starting in 2010, with the launch of Pinterest.

ANTIQUITOSIS

Genetically predisposed to dislike change, New Englanders may keep things as a way of holding on to the past. Or it may be because they’ve held on to something for so long that they can’t throw it out now; somehow, the passage of time seems to imbue objects with value. While that may be true of the Chippendale desk your great-aunt left you, that motheaten towel you borrowed from the Park Plaza Hotel in 1954 can probably go.

CHRONIC PAPERTONIA

In our grandparents’ day, paper was precious and every scrap was used for notes, grocery lists, or insulation. Unfortunately, our ancestors passed the paper-saving gene along to us, which explains why we keep every issue of the Northeast Bovine Gazette in case we need to refer to that article on fog fever again. People with chronic papertonia often can’t distinguish important paper—like birth records and stock certificates—from fast-food receipts, old instruction manuals, and the insurance policy for that beloved 1953 Nash Rambler. Variants of papertonia include “magazine mag netosis” and “catalogue surplus disorder.”

NEW ENGLAND By the Numbers

USEFUL STUFF FROM 80 YEARS OF YANKEE

WHAT PEOPLE WERE ‘SWOPPING’ IN

1942

29

That Colt pistol or revolver you’re not using is needed for guard duty. I’ll give you mint sheets of commemorative stamps.

My armchair-model Zenith radio is yours for an Emerson table radio. I have a three-year-old white milk goat I’d like to swop for a sewing machine. I am a boy 9 years old and want a bicycle very much, and would swop my new skates and my movie projector for same.

Yep—my three children have three miles to walk to school now that tires and gas won’t work. What do you want for your small horse or pony?

Wanted: Milk goats in exchange for pair purebred buff geese, two ox yokes, pair of team bridles. Almost new.

Who needs high moccasins, size 9? I want a corner cupboard. Want knitting machine, hand operated, for making woolen socks. Will exchange new marine barometer or pay cash.

WE WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG

—Thomas Menino (1942–2014). The Boston native became the 53rd—and longest tenured—mayor of Boston, serving from 1993 to 2014. One of the most popular public officials in the nation, he raised himself up from his wheelchair shortly after the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombing and said the words above to rally his city.

day in July 1861 when Union Army soldier Sullivan Ballou died

5.5 years to make the documentary

FOUR

years: duration of the Civil War

TWENTY NINE

day in July 1953 when Civil War documentarian/ filmmaker Ken Burns was born

25 years Ken Burns carried a copy of Sullivan Ballou’s final letter to his wife, Sarah, in his wallet, until it disintegrated

40,000,000 viewers who tuned in for the documentary’s premiere in September 1990

31,000,000 population of the United States when the Civil War began in April 1861

16,000

Individual photographs, paintings, lithographs, broadsides, and newspapers filmed for the documentary

40 major film and TV awards The Civil War won, including 2 Emmys and 2 Grammys

11.5 hours in the documentary series

22.73 miles of fi lm shot (pre-editing) in the making of the documentary

COMPILED BY JULIA SHIPLEY

KEN BURNS’ CIVIL WAR SERIES: 25TH ANNIVERSARY

“We are one Boston.

No adversity, no challenge, nothing can tear down the resilience in the heart of this city and its people.”

Discover The Mantis Difference…In Your Own Garden!

The Mantis Tiller is the lightest weight, easy-to-use gardening powerhouse that makes back-breaking hand tools…OBSOLETE! From sod busting a new garden, to weeding around delicate plants, or digging a hole for a new shrub…the Mantis can do it all!

Powerful enough for big gardens… nimble enough for small. Turns even tough, hard clay soil into rich, crumbly loam. So lightweight that it’s a breeze to handle in the garden.

Historic House Museums

When architectural writer and longtime New England resident William Morgan lived in Kentucky, old houses were what he missed most about the region. Relocated to Rhode Island, he indulges his passion by writing books such as The Cape Cod Cottage and A Simpler Way of Life: Old Farmhouses of New York and New England. We asked him to choose his favorite historic New England homes.

Plimoth Plantation: 1627

The reconstruction of the Pilgrims’ dwellings at Plimoth Plantation serves as a reminder of just how difficult the early days of settlement were. One meager room, a thatched roof, a wooden chimney, and mere slits for windows made for tough living. Plimoth’s houses echo the cottages the settlers knew back home in eastern England, but they quickly had to be modified to survive Massachusetts’ rigorous climate. Although it was a small village, there was a sense of community, a trait that helped

the Pilgrims to endure. Plymouth, MA. 508-746-1622; plimoth.org

Eleazer Arnold House: 1685

This is still a medieval-style house, with its tall proportions, massive Elizabethan chimney, and stone end wall, unique to Rhode Island. (Stone houses were rare in early New England.) But this substantial home shows how far the colonists had moved from basic shelter. As a successful farmer and politico, Arnold could afford a house with six rooms. The Arnold

House was restored by Norman Isham in 1920, and again in 1950 by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England). Both conservation efforts were undertaken to maintain the Arnold House’s unusual early character. Lincoln, RI. 401-728-9696; historicnewengland.org

Wentworth–Gardner House: 1760

This wooden house—fashioned to look like stone—overlooking New

ELEAZER ARNOLD HOUSE, 1685

Hampshire’s Portsmouth Harbor demonstrates how elegant and stylish houses had become by the mid-18th century. Yet this accomplished Georgian mansion was almost lost; it was acquired by antiquarian Wallace Nutting, who sold it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Depression foiled the scheme to move the house to Central Park, and thus the Wentworth–Gardner survives in its timeless waterfront setting. Portsmouth, NH. 603-436-4406; wentworthgardnerandlear.org

Olson House: Late 1700s–1871

The Olson house is a quintessential saltwater Maine farm. Best known as the setting for Andrew Wyeth’s famous painting Christina’s World , the house is now a museum. Visitors may wander through the empty rooms where Wyeth painted many views and portraits during his long friendship with Christina and Alvaro Olson. But more than the pervasive Wyeth legacy (he’s buried here), this un restored farmhouse informs us with the truth of the isolated, hardscrabble life that was the lot of so many northern New Englanders. Cushing, ME. 207-596-6457; farnsworthmuseum.org/olson-house

Mark Twain House: 1874

“Mark Twain,” Samuel Clemens’ riverboat-inspired pseudonym, suggests places like Hannibal, Missouri, and the Mississippi. But he spent 17 very productive years in Hartford, Connecticut. We generally ascribe qualities of modesty and frugality to New England’s old houses—yet this magnificent Victorian speaks of the city’s heyday as a commercial powerhouse, and its exuberance expresses its owner’s larger-than-life personality. Its 25 rooms, filled with memorabilia, mahogany furniture, and Tiffany decorations, make for a lively sensory experience. Hartford, CT. 860-247-0998; marktwainhouse.org

Legendary Light

More than just a luminary sidekick, the Revere Lantern at the Concord Museum helps narrate the most exciting night in our nation’s early history.

BY AIMEE SEAVEY

f ordinary objects become extraordinary through the tales they tell, a visit to Massachusetts’ Concord Museum offers more than a few examples of top-notch storytelling. Yet one angular display of tinned iron and glass speaks most loudly: “Lantern,” the label says, “probably England 1765–1775.” Most know it simply as “the Revere Lantern.” A commanding costar in a key event in Early American history, it has since become a symbol of patriotic pride, the pursuit of freedom, and perhaps the best-known light fixture in the world.

The tale is a familiar one. On the evening of April 18, 1775, volunteer couriers Paul Revere and William Dawes, ABOVE , set off from Boston toward Lexington to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that after months of tension and unrest, the British were en route to disarm the rebels. Worried about their possible interception of the warning, the colonists also hung two lanterns in the bell tower of Boston’s Christ Church—a prearranged signal meaning that the Redcoats were arriving by sea. The events that followed—from the Battles of Lexington and Concord the next day to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” a century later—helped cement that flash of lantern light and the cry “The British are coming!” as the stuff of patriotic legend.

For the Concord Museum’s curator, David Wood, the sole surviving Revere Lantern, purchased from Christ Church in 1782, is also valuable for the story it tells about the weeks and months preceding the events of that April night. “What it does for me,” he notes, “is sum up the level of preparedness on the part of the provincials.” The lantern signal—“such a clever, practical little device”—shows that the battles that followed, though explosive, were hardly unanticipated, or even unwelcome, Wood says: “The lantern proves that they were more prepared [for an invasion] than they were letting on, and they were looking for any opportunity to pull it off.”

Today, the Revolutionary spirit represented by the Revere Lantern is so engrained in America’s story that Christ Church (now Old North Church, in Boston’s North End) regularly draws both Freedom Trail tourists and political hopefuls in search of the perfect photo op. It’s worthy of a visit but lacking in one essential detail. For that, my children, you’ll have to plan your own ride to Concord (we hear daytime is best), where an extraordinary 18th-century antique awaits.

Read more stories from this series at: YankeeMagazine.com/Local-Treasure

CONCORD MUSEUM . 200 Lexington Road, Concord, MA. 978-369-9763; concordmuseum.org

The sexton of Boston’s Christ Church authenticated the Revere Lantern in 1782; it was acquired by Cummings Davis, an avid collector of historic artifacts, in 1853. His exhibits became the basis of the Concord Museum’s collection in the 1880s.

Let our natural beauty surround you.

Wrapped around the southernmost edge of Rhode Island, you will find one of New England’s most loved vacation spots, South County. Blessed by nature, this scenic area is filled with wildlife preserves, protected parks, and forests that spill down to miles of beautiful sandy beaches.

While South County’s setting is classic New England, thanks to a collection of special events its spring scene becomes pure Rhode Island. Catch spring fever while watching the daffodils bloom at the RI Garden Spring Symposium at URI, learn cooking techniques at The Ocean House and feast on seasonal offerings during Restaurant Week.

These are but a few scenes from this beautiful region. There are a total of 20 protected beaches, 29 forests, wildlife preserves and conservation areas throughout the region, as well as 17 public golf courses. Not only does this dedication to conservation ensure vacationers mile after mile of pristine coastline, it also preserves some of the best nature walks in America.

2015 South County Events

27 – March 8............................................Narragansett Restaurant Week

March 5.................................................Marc Cohn at The Greenwich Odeum

March 6 - 29 .........................................The Foursome at The Granite Theatre

March 7.....................................................In the Kitchen at The Ocean House

March 7..................................................RI Garden Spring Symposium at URI

March 8................................................................Ocean’s Run Half Marathon

March 15 ..................................................Chorus of Westerly Spring Concert

South County has more than 15 museums and when it rains, they really shine! The area also boasts an impressive number of Registered Historic Places, including the Nathanael Green Homestead, Smith’s Castle, the state’s first trading post, and the Gilbert Stuart Museum, birthplace of a master portrait artist best known for his portrayal of George Washington on the one dollar bill, and many more.

A microcosm of all New England, South County is a family place, a generational vacation spot with unspoiled beaches and dunes, historic charm and sylvan retreats. Come let our natural beauty surround you!

For more information visit: www.SouthCountyRI.com or call 800.548.4662.

March 20-21

March 21

March 27

April

April

April

April

Photos: Amy Martira

Born in Rhode Island and built for U.S. troops overseas during World War II, Quonset huts were ideal all-purpose military structures that found their way into American life in the late 1940s. Initially adapted as prefabricated homes, Quonsets were used as barns, car dealerships, banks, bowling alleys, and service stations. Loved by some, loathed by others, these semicylindrical huts became lasting icons of postwar America.

The huts were named after a newly built Navy base at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. In 1941, the George A. Fuller Company, one of the firms that was building the base, was asked to design and produce a hut for U.S. military use.

The first Quonset huts measured 16 by 36 feet, and the curve of the roof extended all the way to the ground. The odd shape let the entire building

be buried in dirt as protection from shelling, without collapsing under the weight.

To meet wartime demand for the huts, which grew to thousands in number, a one-story factory was constructed in West Davisville, Rhode Island, along the New Haven Railroad line.

The George A. Fuller Company produced a total of 32,352 huts in West Davisville before

Stran-Steel, a subsidiary of the Great Lakes Steel Corporation. At its peak, Fuller’s factory employed 3,000 men and produced 150 huts a day.

The Navy’s practice of using civilian contractors to build military installations was problematic during wartime. Most contractors lacked military experience, and as civilians, they were prohibited by international law from direct involvement in military actions.

On December 28, 1941, authorization was requested to form a military construction battalion made up of men recruited from the building trades. “Construction Batallion” was soon shortened to “CB,” and before long this group would come to be known as the Seabees. Today there’s a Seabee Museum & Memorial Park in Davisville.

Quonset huts often solved the problem of college housing shortages as World War II veterans returned home. This 1946 photo shows “Rhody Vet Row” at Rhode Island State College (now the University of Rhode Island) in Kingston.

During the war, the idea of using Quonsets for nonmilitary housing started to gain favor. Between 1943 and 1945, the Navy erected 6,285 Quonset huts as housing for soldiers and their families. A fully furnished two-bedroom hut with kitchen and bathroom cost an average of $3,350, including utilities, infrastructure, and furniture.

Legendary Nashville music producer Owen Bradley built a studio in a surplus Quonset. The acoustic effects of the building’s shape included amplification of sounds in the upper-middle range, which would become an essential element of the “Nashville sound” of artists such as Patsy Cline, who recorded there. Years later, when Bradley built his new studio, he instructed engineers to design it with the same acoustics as his old Quonset.

A young Gerald Ford set up his first congressional campaign headquarters in a Quonset in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1948.

Vermont’s Killington Ski Area opened in 1958, with a converted Quonset hut serving as its first base lodge.

In 1978, 17 Quonset huts at Camp Endicott in Davisville, Rhode Island, dating back to 1942, were added to the National Register of Historic Places.

—compiled by Joe Bills

28 States and Counting...

You don’t put just any shutters on a home such as this. You choose Timberlane. While most people love their look, to you, the beauty’s in the details. In the clear, kiln-dried western red cedar. The mortise and tenon joinery. The copper capping to protect joints from moisture. The knowledge that their beauty will endure. And, that they are custom made to match the most exacting of standards and the most discriminating of tastes.

LIVE FREE and savor

The GUIDE TRAVEL

THIS PAGE : Under full sail on Narragansett Bay’s East Passage, with the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge in the background. OPPOSITE , FROM LEFT : A weeping flowering cherry tree at Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum in Bristol; the Castle Hill Inn, founded in 1875 in Newport, seen from the bay; gardener Eugene Platt tends to one of his charges at Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmouth.

Narragansett Bay Spring Comes to

BY STEVE JERMANOK

he parking lot at the Blithewold estate in Bristol is overflowing on this chilly day in late April. I walk around the pink blooms of the Japanese star-magnolia tree and under the signature Japanese cedar that stands guard in front of the massive stone mansion. That’s when I get my first glimpse of the soft yellow hues glowing from a vast garden, stemming from row after row of daffodils. Young girls dressed as fairies run down the aisles, butterfly wings attached to their backs and colorful ribbons in their hair flowing in the wind. I follow their cue and enter a pasture coated with morning dew to find countless families happily ensconced within the centuries-old stone walls. A harpist plays as kids create papier-mâché flowers, blow bubbles, and dance

around a Maypole. I half-expect to see nymphs lounging in a nearby pond of water lilies.

This is exactly the vision of spring awakening I’ve been yearning for after our polar-vortex winter. I need to stir my soul with spring blooms, buds, and community spirit as we all collectively end our days of hibernation. I’ve come to where spring arrives first in New England, the temperate zone along the shores of Narragansett Bay.

Mention Narragansett Bay to a sailor and he’s bound to get all misty-eyed thinking of the prevailing southwestern breeze that kicks up on most summer afternoons. After all, this was the home of the America’s Cup, our foremost sailing event, from 1930 to 1983. But you don’t have to be

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIE BIDWELL

The temperate shores of Rhode Island’s sparkling waters, where farmland rolls to the sea, are the perfect place to welcome the new season.

the next Ted Turner or venture here only in summer to appreciate the bay’s splendor. The same ice sheet that formed Cape Cod also created New England’s largest estuary, lined by

miles of rugged shoreline and perfectly protected harbors, home to a thriving sea trade during America’s Colonial period. Here, where farmland rolls to the sea, towns like Bristol, Ports-

mouth, Newport, and Jamestown are surrounded on three sides by water, creating this area’s own microclimate.

“We’re only 20 miles south of Providence, but often the I-95 corridor is 10 to 15 degrees colder than Bristol,” says the Reverend Charles Cavalconte as we stroll the boardwalk at the Claire D. McIntosh Wildlife Refuge, run by the Audubon Society of Rhode Island.

With a population close to 23,000, the historic seaside village of Bristol is blessed with an abundance of green space. The sprawling lawn at Colt State Park slopes to a vast panorama of shoreline and sea. The fields at Mount Hope Farm are a perfect place to picnic under umbrageous weeping-willow trees, with views of Mount Hope Bay and the bridge heading to Newport. Then there’s the McIntosh Wildlife Refuge, a 28-acre retreat beloved by walkers and bikers, who visit via the East Bay Bike Path connecting Providence to Bristol.

FROM TOP : Boats at rest near the Pell Newport Bridge; a boardwalk at the Claire D. McIntosh Wildlife Refuge in Bristol leads to the shore of Narragansett Bay. OPPOSITE : Gardens manager Gail Read among the glorious daffodils at Blithewold in Bristol.

Birdsong welcomes me to the Refuge’s trails, which meander across fields on wood chips before strolling atop marsh along the boardwalk. On top of a dead oak tree I spot the puffy white head of a young osprey peering out of his oversized nest. Redwing blackbirds flit among the tall cattails, still brown and brittle, not yet in soft summer form. A green heron peers intently at the water, looking for his next meal. And amid the swamp lilies and skunk cabbage that grows like large green ferns in the marsh, I spot the two eyes of a frog staring at me.

“Even though we’re a little slice of heaven, nature still finds its way to us,” says Anne DiMonti, a marine biologist at the Refuge.

For lunch, most locals inevitably find their way to Quito’s , a seafood restaurant overlooking the bay. At the end of the East Bay Bike Path in Bris-

tol, expect a line out the door waiting to dine al fresco in summer. In the spring, however, you can easily snag a table indoors and enjoy the same fresh seafood that arrives daily from fishermen who tie up at the nearby docks. It’s been a daily ritual since 1954, when Quito’s opened as a fish market before converting to a restaurant. The whole-belly fried-clam platter is a specialty, along with pan-seared cod and salmon.

With a chill still in the air, I order a piping-hot seafood stew, filled to the brim with calamari, lobster, scallops, tuna, shrimp, and swordfish, served in a peppery tomato broth. Between spoonfuls, I peer out the window to watch fishermen in their wooden trawlers bouncing on the whitecaps after a morning at sea.

Another perennial Rhody favorite, The Beehive Café , just ex panded

last summer to accommodate its growing number of loyal followers. I make my way there the next morning to grab a cup of New Harvest Coffee, made from beans roasted by a nearby Pawtucket wholesaler. Then I dig into lemon–cornmeal pancakes, topped with genuine maple syrup. A quick stop to see some of the winning designs of early America’s Cup sailboats at the Herreshoff Marine Museum and I’m off to Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum to savor the festivities of Daffodil Days.

The grounds are a treat at any time of year. With its mix of exotic plantings, including Japanese cypress trees, giant sequoias, and rows of tall maples leading from the mansion to the bay, you need no excuse to roam the grounds. The vast lawn churns out wedding after wedding from the time the daffodils are in bloom to when the

leaves on the maples turn crimson— yet it’s hard to top this special day in spring when fairies skip, dance, run, and, I swear, even fly.

Two weeks later, I’m back on the bay for another dose of whimsy at the seasonal opening of Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmouth. I’m here to view the dinosaurs, unicorns, reindeer, and other animals sculpted from California privet, yew, and English boxwood at the oldest and most northern topiary garden in the United States. Little did I know, however, that opening-day morning at the garden is time for the annual plant sale.

Pen and notebook are quickly discarded as I’m caught in a frenzy of gardeners throwing Asiatic lilies, tomato plants, geraniums, and herbs like oregano into a cardboard crate. I’m downright giddy that I’m purchasing these

goodies at a fraction of the cost I’d pay near my home in suburban Boston. With my future garden secured safely in the trunk of my car, I walk the

sweeping grounds, hemmed in by tall balsams on one side and Narragansett Bay on the other. Strolling downhill, I smell the salty brine and peer up at the bright white blossoms of a cherry tree. Feeling elated over my surprise purchase, I’m in no rush.

The drive from Portsmouth to Newport is only 20 minutes, yet it provides

a great glimpse of Americana come early May. Parents stand around baseball diamonds watching their children play Little League games; high-school students urge you to pull over for a charity-drive car wash.

Not far from the Bellevue Avenue mansions in Newport, I stop in at the boutique-clothing store Isoude , which has just opened for the new season. Owner Kate Brierley—a Rhode Island School of Design and Fashion Institute of Technology grad whose work has been featured in Vogue —has

“Spring is the time when your body comes to life and you become aware of your circadian rhythm.”

FROM TOP : Stone walls and spring blooms at Mount Hope Farm (which dates to c. 1745) in Bristol; boats bob in the water off the East Bay Bike Path in Bristol. OPPOSITE : Beavertail Light, built in 1856 at the southern end of Conanicut Island in Jamestown, stands as a beacon at the entrance to Narragansett Bay.

been busy creating her spring/summer collection, which, she explains, was inspired by the changing seasons (or, like me, far too much time indoors on the winter tundra).

“Spring is the time when your body comes to life and you become aware of your circadian rhythm,” Brierley says. “Birds are singing again, the sun is shining, so I wanted to create something that reflects that.” The result is an Impressionistic print dappled with vibrantly colored dots. You’ll find it on a variety of pieces, including dresses, gowns, and jumpsuits.

Come evening, I search for a restaurant with deep farm-to-table roots, where the daily menu depends on the produce the local farms provide. I know I’ve chosen wisely when I enter the intimate dining room at Tallulah on Thames , look up at the tin ceiling, and listen to the mellow voice of Nat King Cole. Each dish is like a shrine

to spring: asparagus topped with sliced radishes and mustard seeds; cauliflower spiced with harissa and pistachios, a sublime mix of sugar and sweet.

Even the butter has sprouts— micro greens from Big Black Dog, a nearby farm in Middletown. The chef thinks nothing of walking outside to the flower boxes to pick mint or edible flowers for his next dish. My last plate, lamb with carrots and nasturtiums, is so colorful when it appears at the table that I imagine I’m staring at one of Kate Brierley’s prints.

Across the bridge from Newport to Conanicut Island, life slows in the village of Jamestown; I feel as though I should be traveling by horseand-buggy. This is certainly true of the sylvan chunk of land known as Watson Farm, in existence since 1796. I arrive on Sheep Shearing Day, when

FROM TOP : Heather and Don Minto and family, shown here with heritage Red Devon cattle, manage Watson Farm in Jamestown; chef Jake Rojas in the back garden at Tallulah on Thames in Newport.

Summer Adventures

Once the daffodils bloom, it’s not long before the lazy days of summer arrive and Narragansett Bay be comes one of New England’s top playgrounds. Here are four of our favorite things to do in the region.

RIDE THE EAST BAY BIKE PATH

The 14.5-mile East Bay Bike Path, originally part of the Providence, Warren & Bristol rail line, heads southeast from the capital along scenic shores to Bristol. Less than two miles into the ride, fishing trawlers and sailboats start to appear on your right, and you’ll see locals clamming for littlenecks in the shallow waters along the route—quite a contrast to the Providence skyline behind you. riparks.com/Locations/ LocationEastBay.html

SAIL OUT OF NEWPORT

They call it the “smoky sou’wester,” the same breeze that drew the America’s Cup races here for more than 50 years: calm and sunny mornings followed by windy afternoons, average speed 10–20 knots. Get out on the water aboard a traditional schooner or a proper sailboat, like the 34-foot O’Day offered by Sightsailing. sightsailing.com

PADDLE WICKFORD HARBOR

Wickford Harbor is a sheltered part of the western coast where oyster beds and sea-grass meadows make up the puckered shoreline. Rent a kayak and glide past Rabbit and Cornelius islands; Cornelius is a good spot to picnic and go for a dip. kayakcentre.com

BIKE PRUDENCE ISLAND

Traveling Prudence Island, seen from the shores of Bristol, on a mountain bike is like visiting the Rhode Island of yesteryear: farmland, small villages, and spectacular ocean views around every bend. Miles of trails and dirt roads snake through the undeveloped landscape, interrupted only by the occasional deer grazing in an old apple orchard. rinemba.org/ prudence-island —S.J.

Be gin a tradition in the heart of Ogunquit.

Experience the heart of Ogunquit at your door every season of the year—lobsters and lighthouses, sandy beaches and sunsets, world class dining and relaxation.

Let us help you begin a Maine tradition today.

When You Go …

COLT STATE PARK

Bristol, RI

401-253-7482; riparks.com/ Locations/LocationColt.html

MOUNT HOPE FARM & GOVERNOR BRADFORD INN

Bristol, RI

401-254-1745; mounthopefarm.org

CLAIRE D. MCINTOSH

WILDLIFE REFUGE

Bristol, RI

401-949-5454; asri.org/ refuges/claire-d.-mcintoshwildlife-refuge.html

QUITO’S

Bristol, RI

401–253–4500; quitosrestaurant.com

THE BEEHIVE CAFÉ

Bristol, RI

401-396-9994; thebeehivecafe.com

HERRESHOFF

MARINE MUSEUM & AMERICA’S CUP

HALL OF FAME

Bristol, RI

401-253-5000; herreshoff.org

BLITHEWOLD MANSION, GARDENS & ARBORETUM

Bristol, RI

401-253-2707; blithewold.org

GREEN ANIMALS

TOPIARY GARDEN

Portsmouth, RI

401-847-1000; newportmansions.org/ explore/green-animalstopiary-garden

ISOUDE

Newport, RI 401-619-5775; isoude.com

TALLULAH ON THAMES

Newport, RI

401-849-2433; tallulahonthames.com

WATSON FARM

Jamestown, RI

401-423-0005; historicnewengland.org/ historic-properties/ homes/watson-farm

the docile creatures are shaved in a pen just in front of the gray-shingled barn. Pulled and tugged this way and that, they don’t put up a fight and actually seem happy to get rid of their coats. I touch the just-clipped wool and it still feels warm. Nearby, a group of spinners work their magic to transform the fleece into yarn, which will be used to make the shawls the farm sells.

I pass a pen of lambs and clamber uphill to a field of tall grass dotted with a herd of heritage Red Devon cattle. Looking down on the water, I spot a lone sail splintering through the trees. When I return to the barn, the place is full of life. Sheep are bleating; kids are laughing as they pick bouquets of dandelions and try the tree swing; and a band plays foot-stomping bluegrass tunes. Winter seems like a faint memory.

A frequent contributor to Yankee, Steve Jermanok is one of America’s most prolific travel writers, with more than 1,500 bylines— the result of having visited 80 countries.

For information on lodging, dining, activities, and events around the Narragansett Bay region, go to: visitrhodeisland.com

Fluffy fleece from Watson Farm; this year’s Sheep Shearing Day is May 9.

EDITORS’ CHOICE

BEST of NEW ENGLAND

BEST LUXURY INN BEDFORD VILLAGE INN BEDFORD, NH

Longest running Four Diamond inn & restaurant in NH. A painstaking restoration converted this former farm estate into 14 guest suites, a guest cottage, six individual intimate dining rooms, a wine bar and a comfortable tavern.

800-852-1166

WWW.BEDFORDVILLAGEINN.COM

BEST BEACHSIDE STAY THE DUNES “ON THE WATERFRONT” OGUNQUIT, ME

When you need to get away from it all … The Dunes Cottages and Guestrooms are situated on twelve secluded and beautifully landscaped acres, offering glorious views of Ogunquit Beach and the Atlantic Ocean.

207-646-2612

WWW.DUNESONTHEWATERFRONT.COM

BEST INSIDER TOUR

MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM BATH, ME

Home to the only surviving shipyard where wooden ships were built, the boatshop keeps traditional boatbuilding alive. View lighthouses and naval ships at Bath Iron Works up close on a cruise or trolley tour. Coming Summer 2015: Lobstering & the Maine Coast.

207-443-1316

WWW.MAINEMARITIMEMUSEUM.COM

BEST RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE CANTERBURY SHAKER VILLAGE CANTERBURY, NH

Canterbury Shaker Village, a National Historic Landmark, is dedicated to preserving the Shakers’ 200-year legacy of entrepreneurship, innovative design and simple living. Includes 25 restored original and four reconstructed Shaker buildings on 694 acres, cafe, and museum store. Open May – October.

603-783-9511

WWW.SHAKERS.ORG

BEST DESIGNER ROOM THE HARRASEEKET INN FREEPORT, ME

A family-owned, AAA 4 Diamond hotel featuring two restaurants, fireplaces, indoor pool, and select petfriendly rooms. Book direct and get breakfast and tea! Complimentary taxi service for Amtrak Downeaster station. Two blocks to L.L.Bean. Best shopping in New England.

800-342-6423

WWW.HARRASEEKETINN.COM

BEST FAMILY INN NONANTUM RESORT KENNEBUNKPORT, ME

Waterfront resort where traditions begin. Seasonal family activities program, kayak & bike rentals, outdoor heated pool, magical fairy garden, scenic lobster boat cruises. Close to the beaches and Dock Square shopping; on the trolley route. TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence winner.

888-205-0726

PHOTO: BOB DENNIS

Reconnect with past Editors’ Choice winners and learn for yourself why they received Yankee Magazine’s highest accolade.

BEST MANSION TOUR ROUGH POINT

NEWPORT, RI

Step into the life of heiress, philanthropist, and art collector Doris Duke at Rough Point, her Newport mansion. Immerse yourself in the fine art, furnishings, and antiques she spent a lifetime collecting. Tour the gardens and grounds with sweeping ocean views.

401-847-8344

WWW.NEWPORTRESTORATION.ORG

BEST WATERSIDE ESCAPE

SAYBROOK POINT INN & SPA

OLD SAYBROOK, CT

The Saybrook Point Inn & Spa is a family-owned, Four Diamond inn located in the historic town of Old Saybrook. Opulent accommodations with picturesque views of the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound await you along the Connecticut Shoreline. 800-243-0212

WWW.SAYBROOK.COM

BEST COLONIAL DINING SALEM CROSS INN RESTAURANT AND TAVERN WEST BROOKFIELD, MA

Experience food cooked as it should be…enjoy creatively prepared, fresh from the garden, seasonal fare while relaxing in our restored 1705 farmhouse on 600 acres of tranquil New England countryside. Fireplace cooking featured November thru April. 260 West Main Street.

508-867-2345 WWW.SALEMCROSSINN.COM

Gilles Martin-Raget/Team Alvimedica

The GUIDE FOOD

The

Chowder

Trail

scoured

ust as Southerners bicker about barbecue, New Englanders are choosy about their chowder. Setting aside the issue of regional variations (creamy in Massachusetts, clear broth in Rhode Island), the very philosophy of what makes chowder chowder is subject to debate.

This stew-like dish has been around for centuries, so its precise historical roots are hard to peg. While the name is thought to derive from the French chaudière , referring not only to the “cauldron” but the ingredients within, the earliest published recipe comes from the September 23, 1751, edition of the Boston Evening Post . A layered “chouder” of onion, potatoes, salt pork, and fish (milk came later) was seasoned with salt, pepper, and herbs such as thyme, and served with hard crackers or “Biscuit.” Later, flour or cracker crumbs were added as a thickener. Over time, that evolutionary tree split further, yielding lobster chowder, Manhattan clam chowder, corn chowder, chicken chowder—enough variations to make an old salt sputter in indignation.

find

best”

by Naomi Kooker

Chowder was never meant to be fancy. But it does evoke community: a shared bowl on a blustery day, a warm and savory meal, a taste of the seaside. We’ve scouted some of the best chowders in New England, honoring tradition while favoring local flavors (and giving vegetarians reason to celebrate as well).

Connecticut CORN & SWEET POTATO CHOWDER

METRO BIS

Historically, corn has been a major crop for the farms that lie along the fertile floodplain of the Connecticut River Valley. So while this version of chowder breaks from the usual potatoes and salt pork, its New England and Native American roots are solid. Chef Christopher Prosperi of Metro Bis, an innovative bistro tucked inside an elegant country inn in Simsbury, strips the sweet kernels and simmers the cobs in water to make a wholesome corn broth. In August, when the corn is at its peak, he says the broth is so sweet “you want to

We

the region to

“the

chowder in each state, from classic clam to creamy corn.

bathe in it.” He even freezes bushels of corn so that he can serve the stew yearround. Some added sweet potatoes, a little garlic, and cream turn this chowder from sultry to sassy.

The Simsbury 1820 House, 731 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury, CT 860-651-1908; metrobis.com

CHRISTOPHER PROSPERI’S CORN & SWEET POTATO CHOWDER

TOTAL TIME : 1 HOUR 15 MINUTES ;

HANDS- ON TIME : 1 HOUR

8 ears corn, shucked and silks removed

6 cups plus 1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 medium-size onion, cut into ¼-inch cubes

1 rib celery, cut into ¼-inch cubes

2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste

½ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

2 large cloves garlic, chopped

½ cup dry white wine

½ cup heavy cream

2 cups diced peeled sweet potatoes (cut into ¼-inch cubes)

1 tablespoon white vinegar

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Use a knife to cut the corn kernels from the cobs and set aside. Place the cobs in a 5- to 7-quart pot and cover with 6 cups of cold water. Bring to a simmer and cook 30 minutes. Strain the cobs and discard them, reserving the water, which is now your corn broth. It should equal about 4 cups. Set it aside.

Return the pot to the stove over medium-low heat. Add the butter and let it melt; then add the oil. Add the onion, celery, salt, and remaining 1 tablespoon of water. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables are soft and translucent, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in the thyme and chopped garlic; cook for an additional minute.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the wine. Bring to a simmer, and cook, stirring continuously, until it reduces down to almost dry. Add the reserved corn broth, cream, and sweet potatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook 20 to 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Add the corn kernels and simmer until just cooked, about 5 minutes. Add the white vinegar, a couple of grinds of black pepper, and parsley. Season to taste with kosher salt. Serve hot. Yield: 8 servings

Maine FISH CHOWDER

HELEN’S RESTAURANT

When Helen and Larry Mugnai opened Helen’s Restaurant in Machias, Maine, in 1950, their fish chowder—made with North Atlantic haddock—was served only on Fridays. So you can thank current owners Julie and David Barker, who made some slight alterations (let’s call them improvements) to the “wildly popular” chowder, for making it a daily item. Its simplicity and resourcefulness are all Down East ingenuity: The haddock is cooked in the potato water, and that broth becomes the basis of the chowder. When a devastating fire last summer forced the Barkers to rebuild their restaurant, they upgraded the design by relocating a fireplace and adding small conference rooms and a bar, but they knew where to draw the line: They wouldn’t dream of changing the menu, which means that the haddock chowder is here to stay. Diners will once again enjoy a hearty bowl overlooking the Machias River when the restaurant reopens, which the Barkers say is sometime early this spring.

111 Main St., Machias, ME 207-255-8423; helensrestaurantmachias.com

HELEN’S ORIGINAL FISH CHOWDER

TOTAL TIME : 45 MINUTES ; HANDS- ON TIME : 30 MINUTES

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 medium-size onion, cut into ¼-inch cubes

4 cups water

2 medium-size russet potatoes, peeled and cut into ¼-inch cubes 2½–3 pounds skinned fresh haddock, cut into 1½-inch chunks

2 cups heavy cream

2 teaspoons kosher salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

¼ teaspoon dried dill

In a 5- to 7-quart pot over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until translucent, 6 to 8 minutes. Set aside. Pour the water into a 3- to 4-quart pot and add the potatoes. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until just tender, about 10 minutes. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the fish to the potato liquid and simmer until the fish begins to flake, about 10 minutes. Remove the fish with a slotted spoon and add it and the potatoes to the cooked onions in the larger pot. Stir.

Slowly add the potato/fish broth and the heavy cream to the onion/fish/ potato mixture. Stir well. Add the salt and white pepper; then add the dill. Simmer gently over low heat for at least 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve hot. Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Massachusetts CLASSIC NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER

CHATHAM PIER FISH MARKET

If salt pork, potatoes, and onions define traditional New England clam chowder, then this one is a classic, save for

HELEN’S RESTAURANT FISH CHOWDER (recipe opposite)

CHATHAM PIER FISH MARKET CLASSIC NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER (recipe, p. 52)

NEWICK’S LOBSTER HOUSE SEAFOOD CHOWDER WITH LOBSTER (recipe, p. 52)

MATUNUCK OYSTER BAR CLEAR BROTH CLAM CHOWDER (recipe, p. 53)

the use of bacon instead of salt pork. There’s always a pot simmering at this shingled shack on Chat ham Pier, ready to ladle into pints and quarts. While purists might protest the roux (a mixture of butter and flour) used as a thickener, this not-too-thick, not-toothin creamy-briny chowder—full of fresh chopped clams, potatoes, bacon, and a hint of thyme—will win them over. Chowder master Doug Ricciardi’s secret? Keep it “old school” by using white pepper. Nothing fancy but mighty fine, especially eaten at the nearby picnic tables on a sunny day with a view of the water and seals swimming by.

45 Barcliff Avenue Extension, Chatham, MA 508-945-3474; chathampierfishmarket.com

CHATHAM PIER FISH MARKET CLASSIC NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER

TOTAL TIME : 1 HOUR 15 MINUTES ;

HANDS- ON TIME : 45 MINUTES

Many supermarkets carry frozen, chopped clam meat in 1-pound containers, which is fresher than canned and just as convenient. Simply defrost before using.

3 strips thick-cut bacon

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large onion, cut into ¼-inch cubes

1 rib celery, cut into ¼-inch cubes

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

2 bay leaves

2 medium-size white potatoes, peeled and cut into ¼-inch cubes

½ cup all-purpose flour

4 cups bottled clam juice, divided

1 pound chopped fresh clam meat, with juices

Kosher salt to taste

3 cups light cream

1 teaspoon white pepper

Set a 4- to 6-quart pot over mediumlow heat. Add the bacon and cook, turning occasionally, until crisp, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the bacon, leav-

ing the fat in the pot, and crumble into small pieces; set aside.

Add the butter, onion, celery, thyme, and bay leaves to the pot. Cook, stirring often, until onions are tender and translucent, 6 to 8 minutes. Return the bacon to the pot and stir. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, while you prepare the potatoes.

In a 2- to 3-quart pot on high heat, boil the diced potatoes in salted water until tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Turning back to the onion/bacon mixture, increase the heat to mediumlow. Add the flour gradually, stirring continuously, until a thick paste forms. Stir and cook 5 minutes. Increase the heat to medium and slowly add the bottled clam juice, 1 cup at a time, incorporating it into the mixture before adding more. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the potatoes and clam meat with its juices. Keep stirring 5 minutes, until the clams are tender. Add the cream slowly; then stir in the white pepper. Discard the bay leaves before serving. Serve hot.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

New Hampshire SEAFOOD CHOWDER WITH LOBSTER

NEWICK’S LOBSTER HOUSE

Already a successful lobsterman at 18, Jack Newick began buying up land around Dover Point, piece by piece, in the 1940s. More than six decades later, his one-time lobster shack is now a seafood beacon, accommodating up to 600 people at a time and promising a romantic sunset from just about any seat in the house. People make the trek from far south and west to crack open a steamed lobster or gobble up the excellent fried seafood. But the rich seafood chowder—one of six “chowdahs” on the menu—is such a hit that it has to be made off-site. You can get your chowder

the “original” way, teeming with bay scallops, shrimp, clams, and haddock— but insiders know to ask for added lobster, which turns this chowder into something like a seafood tour de force.

431 Dover Point Road, Dover, NH

603-742-3205; newicks.com

NEWICK’S SEAFOOD CHOWDER WITH LOBSTER

TOTAL TIME : 1 HOUR 20 MINUTES ;

HANDS- ON TIME : 1 HOUR

Consider cooking and chilling the lobsters a day before preparing the chowder, to make it easier to remove the meat. But be sure to reserve the cooking water, which you’ll use to simmer the potatoes.

3 small (1 pound each or less) lobsters (also called “chicken” lobsters)

4 cups plus ½ cup lobster cooking water

3 cups diced red potatoes, skins on (cut into ¼-inch cubes)

4 strips thick-cut bacon, diced

4 tablespoons salted butter

1 medium-size onion, cut into ¼-inch cubes

2 ribs celery, cut into ¼-inch cubes

¼ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup bottled clam juice

2 cups light cream

1 pound bay scallops

1 pound chopped fresh clam meat, with juices

1½ pounds haddock filet, skinned and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 pound small (51–60 or 61–70 count) shrimp

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Freshly ground white or black pepper, to taste

Garnish: chopped fresh parsley or paprika

Fill a lobster pot halfway with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the lobsters, cover, and reduce the heat to medium; cook 8 minutes. Remove the lobsters and set them aside to cool.

Reserve 4½ cups of the lobster water. When lobsters are cool and easy to handle, remove the meat from the claws, claw joints, and tails. Chop the meat coarsely and set aside.

Put 4 cups of the reserved lobster water in a 2- to 3-quart pot, add the potatoes, and simmer until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain and set aside. In a skillet over medium heat, fry the bacon, turning occasionally, until cooked but not crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a 4- to 6-quart pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion and celery, and cook, stirring, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the bacon and cook another 3 minutes.

Add the flour gradually, whisking continuously, to make a roux. Reduce the heat to low and continue stirring 5 minutes. Increase the heat to medium and slowly whisk in the remaining ½ cup of lobster water, then the bottled clam juice and the cream. Add the scallops, clam meat with its juices, haddock, and shrimp. Stir in the cooked potatoes, milk, salt, and pepper.

Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until all the fish has cooked through and flavors have combined, about 15 minutes. Right before serving, add the lobster meat. Garnish with parsley or paprika.

Yield: 10 to 15 servings

Rhode Island CLEAR BROTH CLAM CHOWDER

MATUNUCK OYSTER BAR

No wonder Rhode Islanders prefer clear broth over cream—at every turn, they’re surrounded by saltwater. To savor the Ocean State’s take on chowder, visit Matunuck Oyster Bar, overlooking the eddies of Potter Pond in South Kingstown. This rich broth is loaded with potatoes, bacon, and either cherry stones or quahogs (same species of hard-shell clam, quahogs being

bigger than cherrystones), depending on what’s fresh that day. Owner Perry Raso is so fastidious about his shellfish that he operates his own seven-acre oyster farm right by the restaurant.

629 Succotash Road, South Kingstown, RI 401-783-4202; rhodyoysters.com

MATUNUCK CLEAR BROTH CLAM CHOWDER

TOTAL TIME : 1 HOUR 15 MINUTES ; HANDS- ON TIME : 45 MINUTES

Steaming the clams might seem laborious, but it’s actually easy and makes a briny broth. Aim to extract 6 cups of broth from the clams; if not, you’ll need to have some bottled clam juice on hand to round it out.

8 pounds small quahogs or large cherrystone clams

7 cups water

6 cups clam broth (from steaming) or 4 cups clam broth plus 2 cups bottled clam juice

3 slices thick-sliced bacon, cut into ¼-inch cubes

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 medium-size onions, cut into ¼-inch cubes

3 ribs celery, cut into ¼-inch cubes

2 bay leaves

2 pounds Yukon Gold or other all-purpose potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces

2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

2 tablespoons minced fresh chives

1 teaspoon minced fresh dill Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Scrub the clams and rinse them clean. Add 7 cups of water to a large stockpot fitted with a steamer basket or colander, and bring to a boil. Add half the clams to the basket and cover. Steam until the clams open, 5 to 10 minutes. (Discard any clams that don’t open.) Repeat with the second batch of clams. Reserve 6 cups of the broth. Set aside.

Cool the clams; remove the meat from the shells and dice it into ½-inch pieces. Keep them covered and refrigerated until ready to use.

Put the bacon in a 5- to 7-quart pot over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat, leaving the bacon in the pot. Reduce the heat to mediumlow. Add the butter, onions, celery, and bay leaves, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are softened but not browned, 6 to 8 minutes.

Add the potatoes and reserved clam broth to the pot. Continue cooking over medium heat until the chowder begins to simmer. If it begins to boil, reduce the heat slightly. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Just before serving, remove the pot from the heat, stir in the clams and herbs, discard the bay leaves, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot. Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Vermont

MANHATTAN CLAM CHOWDER WITH SPICY SAUSAGE

THE RESERVIOR RESTAURANT & TAP ROOM

How can a restaurant in the only landlocked New England state claim Manhattan clam chowder as its own when

a shared bowl on a blustery day, a savory meal, a taste of the seaside …

the tomatoes are from Rhode Island and the clams come from the coast? Leave it to migration (and the fact that many Manhattanites have found refuge in the Green Mountain State). When Vermont native Shawn Beede attended Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, he interned in Bar Harbor, Maine, where his boss served a tomatobased chowder. Now he puts his own stamp on the form by adding spicy sausage and bacon, sourced locally from Vermont Smoke & Cure. It’s the perfect antidote to a chilly spring day and a reminder that whatever the form, New Englanders are sticklers when it comes to quality chowder.

1 South Main St., Waterbury, VT 802-244-7827; waterburyreservoir.com

MANHATTAN CLAM CHOWDER WITH SPICY SAUSAGE

TOTAL TIME : 1 HOUR ;

HANDS- ON TIME : 45 MINUTES

4 strips thick-cut bacon, diced

2 spicy Italian sausages, casings removed

1 cup peeled and diced Yukon Gold or other white potatoes (cut into ¼-inch cubes), divided

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

1 sweet onion, such as Vidalia, cut into ¼-inch cubes

2 ribs celery, cut into ¼-inch cubes

2 carrots, cut into ¼-inch cubes

1 green bell pepper, cut into ¼-inch cubes

1 sprig fresh thyme

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

4 cups bottled clam juice

1 28-ounce can plus 1 cup diced tomatoes, including liquid

1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning

Kosher salt to taste

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cups chopped or minced fresh clam meat, with juices

In a 5- to 7-quart pot over medium heat, cook the bacon, sausages, and ½ cup of the potatoes until the sausages and bacon are browned. (Use a spoon to break up the sausages as you go.) Add the garlic, onion, celery, carrots, bell pepper, and herbs. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables are tender and the onions translucent, about 10 minutes. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the bottled clam juice, stirring to scrape any browned bits off the

of the potatoes. Bring the chowder to a simmer. Add Old Bay and season with salt and pepper. Simmer (don’t boil) until the potatoes are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Add the clam meat with its juices to the chowder just before serving. Serve hot. Yield: 8 servings

Get our favorite lobster-chowder recipe at: YankeeMagazine.com/Chowder

THE RESERVOIR RESTAURANT MANHATTAN CLAM CHOWDER WITH SPICY SAUSAGE (recipe below)

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Bob’s Clam Hut

At this Maine favorite, it’s not just the fried seafood that’s legendary.

BY AMY TRAVERSO

he parking lot at Bob’s Clam Hut on U.S. Route 1—where the view is of pines and marshes but also the Nine West outlet across the street— is packed with cars hailing from Maine down to Florida. It’s another bustling Kittery day, and outlet shoppers are loading up on discount sneakers and enamel cookware, enough to stoke an appetite for fried clams and lobster rolls. So even though the weather is cold and the sky is a dull milky gray, there’s a line at the walk-up window.

Robert and Betty Kraft founded their roadside stand in 1956, long before Dexter and Dansk made their incursion. The town was never particularly touristy, owing to the naval shipyards, but the restaurant had enough local traction to stay open year-round. Big-bellied clams came in fresh every day and were tossed in a mix of corn and wheat flour, then fried in clean oil. They didn’t even add salt, which Bob believed masked the taste of the sea. The lobster rolls were always sweet and ample, and the chowder had just the right mix of cream and brine. When Michael Land garten came along to buy the business in 1986, his main ambition was to change nothing, other than expanding the dining room and adding more windows. “There was a big love affair between Bob and Betty and the town,” Landgarten says. “They were so honored to cook for the town and took it so seriously. I walked into a Norman Rockwell painting in a real way.”

At the walk-up window inside, there’s another painting: a portrait of an old woman in a red blouse, reading glasses in hand. Next to her, a cartoony speech bubble reads, “What’ll ya have?”

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MEREDITH PERDUE

going to change that recipe. It’s a great recipe.’” He smiles. Lil could wear the shine off a diamond if she set her mind to it, and he wasn’t going to win this one. “Eventually I gave way and added them to the menu as ‘Lillian’s Style’ and gave her 15 cents for every order.”

The dueling clam recipes caught the attention of producers for Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives show on the Food Network, and in 2010 the spikyhaired maestro showed up to tape a

segment. Lillian was 84, still hawking her clams, and she charmed the pants off Fieri. At the show’s climax, Fieri led a Bob’s-versus-Lillian’s smackdown. He tasted them plain, then with tartar sauce. He praised Lillian’s for their “crunchification.” But in a surprise twist, he about-faced and chose Bob’s. “And it’s killing me because I like Lillian a lot better than you,” he told Landgarten. In the clip, Lillian seems less disappointed than dismayed

OPPOSITE : The spirit of longtime seafood chef Lillian Mangos still presides over Bob’s Clam Hut.

INSET : Bob’s was established in Kittery, Maine, in 1956.

THIS PAGE , LEFT : Current owner Michael Landgarten. BOTTOM : Lillian’s fried-clam recipe (egg wash before breading, for “crunchification”) vs. Bob’s original (no eggwash).

This is Lillian Mangos, who stood at that counter six days a week for nearly 25 years and developed such a following that her line was usually twice as long as the others. She arrived in 1986, the same year as Landgarten, having already run three restaurants with her husband, and she had opinions. “She yelled at me for four years, ‘You’ve got to put the clams in an egg wash before you bread them,’” Landgarten says. “I said, ‘We’re not by Fieri’s lack of judgment. The man clearly didn’t know his clams.

Lillian’s star turn only enhanced her celebrity, and her line grew twice as long through the following summer. “She was in heaven,” Landgarten says. Then, a tragedy. Ten months after the show aired, Lillian suffered a stroke on New Year’s Day. She lingered for two more years, in and out of the hospital and rehabilitation center, but buoyed by letters from her fans. She died in January 2013. At the end of that year, Landgarten opened a hip little café in downtown Kittery serving espresso and fresh crullers good enough to make a seaman jump ship. He named it Lil’s.

Have you been to Bob’s Clam Hut? Tweet us @yankeemagazine, using #yankeeflavor.

Bob’s Clam Hut, 315 U.S. Route 1, Kittery, ME. 207-439-4233; bobsclamhut.com

Lil’s Café, 7 Wallingford Square, Kittery, ME. 207-703-2800; lilscafe.com

Each month, we profile an iconic New England eatery in our “Local Flavor” column. We’re looking for venues with great stories that capture the spirit of a place. Got a favorite you’d like to share? E-mail editors@yankeepub.com and put “Local Flavor” in the subject heading.

KITTERY

Lillian Mangos developed such a following that her line was twice as long as the others.

Great Cakes

BY AIMEE SEAVEY

o most people, New England cuisine begins with good fish. With four centuries of maritime tradition behind it, seafood has pride of place in New England kitchens—where any fish (crustaceans and mollusks, too, for that matter) can and will be expertly prepared, often with little more than a lemon wedge for garnish. Some of these dishes (such as boiled cod or fish with oatmeal) put economy ahead of flavor, but some of the most economical foods were also the most delicious. Consider a hot batch of savory fish balls or fish cakes, made with seasoned mashed potato to stretch the fish and fried until crisp and golden brown. It’s a comfort food that connects generations.

In the early 20th century, seafood consumption peaked during Lent, the 40-day period before Easter, when many Catholics fasted and abstained from meat. Because New England had the largest Catholic population in the country at that time, the area’s newspapers and magazines offered an annual batch of recipes for turning meatless meals into magic with Lentenapproved dishes such as (quoting from Yankee ’s recipe archive here) cheese tarts with shrimp, cashew-stuffed red snapper, and whiskery codfish balls. An inexpensive favorite, those deepfried balls got their furry moniker thanks to the “crisp little tendrils of salt cod whispering out from their salty potato interiors.”

Cod, fresh or salted, has historically been the most popular fish in New England, lending its name to Cape Cod, hanging in holy wooden form over the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and prompting food historian Clementine Paddleford to give it special mention in How America Eats , her 1960 ode to regional

How a sacred fish, Yankee thrift, and Lenten tradition gave us a classic New England dish worth celebrating—and reinventing. |

PHOTOGRAPH BY KRISTIN TEIG

FOOD AND PROP STYLING BY CATRINE KELTY

Use your smartphone to scan for step-by-step photos and directions.

cooking. “Beans and brown bread make the Saturday night menus,” she wrote after visiting Boston, “but the cod is kept sacred. It shows up everywhere.” Today, cod stocks (“noblest of the finny families”) have radically diminished, and many have taken it off their menus.

Although Lenten dietary restrictions and an abundant supply may not be the driving forces behind today’s fish consumption, there are still plenty of reasons to break out the chowder pot and tartar sauce. Whether it’s in celebration of our seafaring heritage, in support of New England fishermen, or in response to campaigns like “Meatless Monday” encouraging personal and planetary health, there are as many delicious, ecofriendly dishes to enjoy today as there are … well … you know the rest.

A cousin to codfish balls, which are deep-fried, fish cakes are patted out and fry up wonderfully in the pan—easier to prepare and a bit healthier, too. We’ve substituted the more-sustainable hake for the traditional cod, but any firm white fish will work. Double the recipe to feed a crowd or freeze half for later.

FISH CAKES

WITH

HOMEMADE TARTAR SAUCE

TOTAL TIME : 1 HOUR , PLUS CHILLING ; HANDS- ON TIME : 25 TO 30 MINUTES

FOR THE TARTAR SAUCE:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 heaping teaspoon prepared

horseradish

1 tablespoon spicy relish, drained (use sweet if you prefer)

1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions

2 teaspoons flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Hot sauce, to taste

FOR THE FISH CAKES:

1 pound skinned boneless hake filet

Olive oil

1 large russet potato

1 tablespoon homemade tartar sauce, plus more for serving

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley

1/4 cup chopped scallions

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Pinch cayenne pepper

All-purpose flour (for hands)

1 large egg, beaten

1 cup panko breadcrumbs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Lemon wedges

First, mix all of the tartar-sauce ingredients together and set aside. Next, preheat your oven to 400°. Pat the fish dry; then place it on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Bake until cooked throughout, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool completely.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Peel and chop the potato; then boil until tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Drain and let it rest in the colander a moment or two; then return the potato to the pot over low heat to dry out, mashing and stirring to prevent sticking. Reserve one cup of mashed potato in the pot (discard the rest, or save it to eat later). Add the tartar sauce, lemon zest, parsley, scallions, salt, pepper, and cayenne to the pot and mix gently, tasting until the seasoning is right.

With a fork, flake the fish into the potato and mix gently to combine. With floured hands to prevent sticking, shape the mixture into six 3-inch cakes. Brush each cake with beaten egg and coat completely with panko crumbs. Arrange the cakes on a large plate and chill 30 minutes, or up to one day.

In a large frying pan, warm the vegetable oil over medium heat until very hot. Fry the cakes about 5 minutes per side, or until crisp and golden brown, working in batches if needed. Drain on paper towels; then serve hot with tartar sauce and lemon wedges.

Yield: 2/3 cup tartar sauce, 6 cakes (2 to 3 servings)

Try another favorite seafood dish: YankeeMagazine.com/Fish-Sticks

THOREAU’S MAINE A Photo Story of an Epic Adventure

text by MEL ALLEN

photographs by LITTLE OUTDOOR GIANTS

“WE HAD A GLORIOUS VIEW” —THE MAINE WOODS

After camping at Birch Point on Grand Lake Matagamon, Mike Wilson readies for the day’s paddling. Wilson was the primary catalyst and organizer of the 325-mile expedition marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Henry David Thoreau’s The Maine Woods, which collected Thoreau’s accounts of his three wilderness journeys to Maine in the mid1800s. The Maine Woods was published in 1864, shortly after Thoreau’s death, and today is viewed as a classic portrayal of the North Woods’ landscape and people. As senior program director for the Northern

Forest Center and its Maine Woods Discovery marketing offshoot ( mainewoodsdiscovery.com) , Wilson’s goal is to excite people about experiencing the North Woods. “This is the Alaska of the East—this is where you have the guided experience,” he says. “We want people to know that the woods hold the potential to change a life.” Of all the places Jarrod McCabe and Dom Casserly, the Little Outdoor Giants (L.O.G.) photo team, saw during their 16-day journey, Grand Lake Matagamon was, they said, the most beautiful place of all to paddle.

n mid-May 2014, they came together on Indian Island, the heart of the Penobscot Nation. They were Thoreau scholars, Maine Guides, advocates of North Woods tourism, members of the Penobscot Nation, whose ancestors had guided Henry David Thoreau into the wilderness. The 325-mile journey would follow his 1857 trip with Penobscot guide Joe Polis into the fabled heart of the Maine wilderness: Moosehead Lake, across the Northeast Carry, into the West Branch of the Penobscot River, into Chesuncook Lake and Umbazooksus Stream, over the legendary Mud Pond Carry, into the Allagash waterways before spilling down Webster Stream into the East Branch of the Penobscot and a return to Indian Island on the first day of June.

The occasion was the 150th anniversary of the publication of Thoreau’s The Maine Woods —a literary milestone that few outside of the expedition’s organizers and Thoreau scholars had probably paid much attention to. But as a spur to arouse interest in one of the last great wild places in the East, it became a rallying point. So the media came—in little bursts and at times, as with CBS Sunday Morning, a big splash. There were daily Twitter feeds, and the Maine Woods Discovery site (mainewoodsdiscovery.com) let armchair travelers follow along without blackfly bites or aching shoulders.

But once the paddlers set off in a driving rain on windswept Moosehead Lake, the experience became what it has always been in the Maine woods: to take what comes, through all weather, over rugged terrain and fast rivers and wide lakes. All the while forming deep friendships with people who are depending on you as you’re depending on them. Soaking in the utter beauty and stillness, and eating food that lingers in memory because of where you were, beneath stars so bright they seemed to burn, and because you were truly hungry and you heard loons calling all around you.

When they finally paddled into Indian Island with faces burned and legs welted, to the sound of ceremonial drums and Native chants, everyone, but especially those who had paddled start to finish, calling themselves the “Thoreauic 8” (including photographers Jarrod McCabe and Dominic Casserly), knew that though they had followed the trail forged by Joe Polis and Thoreau, they no longer needed to. It was their trip now.

THE HERITAGE OF MAINE GUIDES

On Thoreau’s 1853 foray to Maine to hunt moose, he was guided by Joseph Attean, a future Penobscot chief; on his final expedition to the Maine woods in 1857, he was guided by Joe Polis, a Penobscot Indian (Thoreau at TOP LEFT ; P olis portrait ABOVE LEFT ). Polis received $1.50 a day plus 50 cents a week for his canoe. Thoreau was in awe that Polis carried only “his axe and gun … a blanket, a store of tobacco and a new pipe.” Of his wilderness skills, Polis told Thoreau, “great difference between me and white man …” But Polis would have respected the woodland skills of Kevin Slater ( LEFT), head guide for the Thoreau 150 expedition, and the abilities of Matt Polstein ( BELOW LEFT ), founder of New England Outdoor Center (NEOC), and Glen Horne of Coyote Ridge Guide Service and Outfitting ( BELOW RIGHT), shown here holding the coffee he made each day.

Kevin Slater, owner with his wife, Polly Mahoney, of Mahoosuc Guide Service, made the wood-andcanvas canoes, the paddles, and the split-ash pack baskets, all by hand. When a storm on Moosehead Lake buffeted the canoes on the first day of paddling, he pulled everyone ashore, cut tree limbs, and tied them to the canoes to make secure catamarans. The day before the rigorous Northeast Carry, he demonstrated the proper and safe way to transport an 80- to 100-pound canoe ( OPPOSITE , CENTER LEFT ). He taught everyone how to scout a fast-flowing river and how to read the lines of the rapids. In this shot, which the L.O.G. call “a gift,” Slater is doing an eddy turn on Grindstone Falls. Photographer Dom Casserly was in the bow while Jarrod McCabe perched on a rock downriver to capture Slater leaning deeply into the turn to swing the boat around in the eddy to face upriver. “When I looked at the photographs,” McCabe said, “I was amazed at how his facial expressions were always calm, focused, and unwavering.”

CAMPSITE BLESSINGS

After hours in the elements, a classic campsite was a warm blessing, with never-ending steaming pots of coffee and potatoes and tea simmering over flames. Camp was a time, too, for reading, writing, and reflection. Here, Stan Tag reads The Maine Woods on a bluff at Seboomook Point, overlooking Moosehead’s northern end (ABOVE). Tag, a literature professor and a scholar of the 19th-century Maine North Woods, was one of the Thoreauic 8—the only scholar to go start to finish. When he returned home to Washington State, he dreamed “of moving through water. In my dream I am coming down the river into Indian Island.”

“We pulled into Thoreau Island on the Penobscot River and chose this point on the upriver side,” the L.O.G. wrote. “When we read Thoreau’s passages on this portion of the trip, we realized we were camped in the exact spot Thoreau himself had slept in 1857” ( OPPOSITE ).

In contrast to Thoreau’s staple of “hard bread, fried pork and strong coffee, well sweetened in which we did not miss the milk …” this expedition feasted on “T-bone steaks, vegetables, moose and venison, fresh fiddleheads, pineapple upside-down cake … At lunch we made delicious wraps, all in the wilderness,” the L.O.G. wrote.

Guide Matt Polstein, NEOC founder and head dinner cook on the trip, uses an overturned canoe as a table to chop onions as he chats with Shannon Leroy of the Appalachian Mountain Club ( RIGHT ). “Eating great meals in the wilderness was such a large part of the enjoyment of the trip,” the L.O.G. wrote. “This is what makes a Maine guided trip so worth the money— guides who know how to cook in the wild.”

Use your smartphone to scan for more Moosehead Lake photos.

Thoreau 150 began on Indian Island, north of Bangor, where Joe Polis’s home still stands and where more than 500 members of the Penobscot Nation live today. A group of Penobscots joined the trip at various points. Before leaving for Moosehead waters, tribal historian James Francis ( ABOVE LEFT ) led a walk through Native land beside the Penobscot River. “The river is the heart of our culture,” he said. “The water that surrounds us flows from Katahdin and ties us to our landscape. From water comes life.” Jason Pardilla ( TOP LEFT ) was one of the Thoreauic 8. The eagle is sacred to the tribe, and the feather he holds, looking out to Chesuncook Lake ( OPPOSITE , TOP ), was carried throughout

the journey only by Penobscots. Jennifer Neptune ( TOP RIGHT ) is a celebrated split-ash basket maker and bead artist. “When you study the works from the past,” she told a reporter, “you feel as though you are learning from your ancestors.” Chris Sockalexis ( ABOVE RIGHT ) is a tribal archaeologist; on the second night he demonstrated how his ancestors made arrowheads from nearby Mount Kineo flint. Chris (“Charlie Brown”) Francis carries a wanigan filled with heavy supplies ( OPPOSITE , BOTTOM ). A master moose caller and hunter, Charlie Brown could have fed everyone from the forest, Mike Wilson said. “We could not have done this trip,” he noted, “without the Penobscot Nation.”

JOE POLIS’S LEGACY

— Little Outdoor Giants

For the men and women who joined Thoreau 150, their perspective of the subject of the trip changed: from Thoreau the essayist/philosopher to Thoreau the physically rugged woodsman. The nearly two-mile Mud Pond Carry, an ancient route connecting waterways, tested everyone’s endurance. “We sank a foot deep in water and mud at every step, and sometimes up to our knees,” Thoreau wrote. Kevin Slater shows that time hasn’t altered anything, trudging along with one of his handmade ash pack baskets on his back ( TOP, INSET ). “He never moved quickly,” the L.O.G. wrote, “but he always knew his next move.”

Chris (“Charlie Brown”) Francis and Kevin Slater rest briefly along the Mud Pond Carry ( ABOVE ). “The forest felt absolutely ancient,” the L.O.G. wrote. The carry began at 3:00 p.m. Dom and Jarrod didn’t finish their

fourth trip with supplies until after 9:00 p.m. They pitched no tents; everyone simply unrolled bedding and sank to the soft ground.

Forest entanglements made canoe carries a cooperative necessity ( OPPOSITE , TOP ). The wood-and-canvas canoes had been swapped for the more rugged Old Town Trippers. In 1857 Joe Polis would have mostly been on his own, emptying the canoe and lifting it over obstacles.

Guide Glen Horne (stern) and Penobscot guide James Francis paddle through one of many rapids along the route ( OPPOSITE , BOTTOM ). Wrote the L.O.G., “We started out fearful, inexperienced on rapids … But through time, patient teaching, and experience, we learned how to stop, scout, read the water, pick our line, paddle, eddy turn, and all sorts of other new river skills. We even had a rescue, and it went textbook.”

A PHYSICAL JOURNEY

“The sun had long set. Mike and I swapped several times on this final carry, our shoulders on fire as we took slow steps through the mud.”

Use your smartphone to scan for more photos of the Mud Pond Carry.

“A PLACE TO CHANGE A LIFE”

Mike Wilson stands above Grand Falls Pitch on the East Branch of the Penobscot, one of many breathtaking sights along the journey. With less than a week to go, he could let himself relax a bit. He’d held in a lot of tension, knowing how much could go wrong and how people were waiting to join at different sites nearly every day. “We arrived and set up camp at perfect timing to be able to experience sunset over the Grand Falls,” the L.O.G. wrote. “You could stand here and feel the spray on your face, and having not seen the sun very much, it was a special moment.”

SPECIAL MOMENTS FOR THE LITTLE OUTDOOR GIANTS

Each night Jarrod and Dom recorded their impressions of the day, including drawings and memorable snatches of conversation, in a leatherbound notebook ( ABOVE LEFT) that would have made Thoreau proud. From their many hundreds of photos, taken from dawn to dark, we asked them which held memories they would show their own grandchildren years from now. Here is what they chose (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT):

Twilight: “This is Chris Sockalexis drumming us in to Birch Point on the far eastern end of Grand Lake Matagamon. We started this 9-mile stretch as the sun was setting. We paddled for the next 3 hours in utter enchantment (and exhaustion), weaving between pine-covered islands, glassy still water reflecting the blues and purples of the sky as the twilight came on. We heard Chris drumming and singing; the sound carried for miles. We arrived in the last moments of light and enjoyed a feast of moose stew and fresh fiddleheads. This was one of our favorite hours of the whole trip. And then we fell asleep to the sound of loons calling to each other all night long. Truly magical!”

Drinking water: “This is our filtered drinking water taken from Mud Pond. This water was what we drank and cooked with for the day. The mud clogged our filters and greatly slowed down our water filtering. We drank literally all the water on the trip from the rivers, from the lakes. We were truly a part of the landscape on the trip.”

Salamander: “Dom found this yellow-spotted salamander coldly floating in the very middle of Moosehead Lake on day 2, about one mile offshore. We warmed him back to life and dropped him off on the western shore. Perhaps he was frozen in the ice over the winter, or perhaps he was blown out into the lake during a storm. Finding critters like him made the trip more memorable for us.”

Serenity ( OPPOSITE ) : “On the East Branch of the cool, blue Penobscot River it felt very much as I imagined the river would be.”

To see more images from this iconic journey, go to: YankeeMagazine.com/Thoreau

‘My New England’ PHOTO CONTEST

When we ask readers to send us their favorites among the photos they’ve taken that speak to “My New England,” we’re asking not only for their images but also about what New England says to them. It gets personal, doesn’t it? The word “My” adds a layer of commitment. What readers sent us by the hundreds were really visual essays. Looking through the selections, we saw where they lived and what was important to them. “My” means that one person’s vision of New England might be a sprawling industrial mill, while another’s might be a gathering storm over a field, where we can almost smell the rain that is poised to fall. It might be the light slanting through a window on an empty schoolroom, or a rock-strewn beach where you can all but touch the cold sea.

As we did last year, we enlisted the careful judgment of someone whose life is centered on photography. New England native Paula Tognarelli, executive director and curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts, considered the images that Heather Marcus, our photo editor, and Lori Pedrick, our art director, had tagged as possible finalists; she added her voice, and then we gathered to choose the winners. We invite all of you to again look through a lens, wherever you are in New England, and find the moments that stick.

“My New England” will appear again next year in the March/April 2016 issue. For contest details, rules, and updates, visit YankeeMagazine.com/Photo-Contest. And to see more 2014 entries, go to: YankeeMagazine.com/2014-Photos—Mel Allen

1st Place Winner!

Title: Colonial Classroom

Location: East Lyme, Connecticut

Photographer: Michael Klehm

Judge’s comments: “This image is narrative in nature and recalls an earlier classroom. It’s a very nostalgic photograph; although absent of inhabitants, it alludes to student presence through scuffing on the floor and handwriting on the blackboard.”

2nd Place Winner!

Title: Window on a World

Location: Martha’s Vineyard

Photographer: Beverly Booher

Judge’s comments: “For me this photo works on a number of levels. I’m drawn to the richness of the light in this image. The internal setting is warm and inviting because of it. The light holds the viewer inside, yet the window beckons to the world beyond. A reliant relationship definitely exists between inside and outside.”

3rd Place Winner!

Title: Storm Rolls In

Location: Harpswell, Maine

Photographer: Darylann Leonard

Judge’s comments: “This is a simple photograph that has a lot going on within it. The stone path and the placement of the buoy bring us into the photograph. The tumultuous sky keeps our focus on the main character, the boat.”

‘my new england’ photo contest

honorable mention

Title: Harvest Before the Storm

Location: Barrington, New Hampshire

Photographer: William Kramer

Judge’s comments: “I’m drawn to the drama of this image. The choice of perspective accentuates an almost heightened anxiety in the subject. The image’s gray-day tonality indicates that something unsettling will happen very soon. This image is definitely a narrative that the photographer leaves to the viewer to conjure.”

honorable mention

Title: Snow Mirror

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Photographer: Aoife Shanahan

Judge’s comments: “This image is a trick of the eye. The mirror’s circular shape draws the viewer in and keeps the viewer there long enough to acknowledge the fact that it’s snowing. The black-and-white accentuates the clues that it’s winter in the city.”

honorable mention

Title: Millyard

Location: Nashua, New Hampshire

Photographer: Rebecca Killeen-Brown

Judge’s comments: “Most people don’t think of industry as a New England landscape. But it was the mills and factories of New England that contributed to profitable enterprise in a bygone era. The winter day and the mill’s color and smokestack, in tandem with the winding river, give this image a very successful composition.”

about our judge

Paula Tognarelli

is the executive director and curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts.

She has juried and curated exhibitions around the world and is on the advisory board of the New England School of Photography in Boston. griffinmuseum.org

new england’ photo contest

Metal-detection equipment in hand, Rick Comfort searches a field in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

LOST TREASURES FROM THE PAST WAIT TO BE HEARD AND FOUND AGAIN.

BY JULIA SHIPLEY

STORIES BENEATH OUR FEET

PHOTOGRAPHS BY COREY HENDRICKSON

FINDERS

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, NORTHERN VERMONT

It’s early November, and I’m standing at the edge of a field where the earth has produced enough corn to get a farmer’s herd through the coming winter. Now three men are wandering through the frozen stubble, searching the land for another yield.

The woods surrounding the field are bare, except for the isolated glow of gold-needled tamaracks. The world feels slow and still. Farthest away, against the backdrop of shabbykneed mountains, Lance Comfort paces somberly. Dave Linck meanders the midground, and Rick Comfort is nearby, staring at the earth intently as his boots crunch through shin-high stubble. A bluejay shrieks. A sortie of geese honk as they coast into the field, but I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who hears them. All the men are wearing headphones, listening to heavy metal. What they’re hearing isn’t Metallica or Iron Maiden, though; it’s the song of lost things, old things, pieces of the past: treasures.

The brothers Comfort, Lance and Rick, each wield a Minelab metal detector, while Dave brandishes a White’s Electronics model as they ramble around this 40-acre patch, letting the ground speak to them. The song they’re hearing is mostly a series of hoots, beeps, and warbles triggered by iron, a ferrous metal, which they ignore, hoping instead for the promising falsetto notes signaling nickel, copper, and silver.

I’m waiting for any of them to quit drifting and kneel. Rick is having a lucky morning, so I’m sticking by him. Every 10 minutes or so, he hears that heart-quickening pitch and pulls the shovel off his hip to dig up a tight circle of dirt. He lifts it up like a plug and sets it down beside the hole. Then he kneels and uses his detachable sensor, holding it like a microphone to the earth, snuffling it like a pig snout to learn where his discovery lies: in the hole or the pile beside it.

The “Brothers and Others,” as they call themselves, have been hunting through Vermont’s dirt for more than a decade. Each year, Rick, who works for FedEx, along with retirees Lance and Dave, devise two detecting expeditions. They meet once in the early spring and once in the fall. In the off months, Lance and Dave, both active members of their local historical societies, study old atlases and examine town records. They peer at historical and topographical maps to determine the best hunting grounds, the most trampled plots of yesteryear: stagecoach stops, old boardinghouses, farm dumps, churchyards,

pinky finger and then a grimy toothbrush he carries for this work, he clears the bell’s mouth and gives it a shake. “Could be its first jingle in a hundred years,” he says. He tucks it into a clear plastic envelope and stashes it in his pouch. Then he refills the hole, tamps it, stands up, and resumes detecting.

Ten minutes later he crouches again. This time he unearths a large, flat coat button from the 1700s. Then he finds a bent, whitish smudge of metal—old lead pipe.

Dave starts finding things, too, albeit less ancient: first an iron washer, then a soda can, then a grommet. “Some pioneer lost this from his Nike,” he quips.

And then, just 20 feet from this debris, Dave unearths a treasure—a “large copper”—an antique coin the size of a Necco wafer. Dave wipes it off on his jeans and presses it into my palm, this chilly 250-year-old piece of currency. This is the coin’s life story: It’s transacting again after prolonged dormancy, shuttling between warm hands. How many pockets and hands has it passed through? What did it pay for? Who had it last, and lost it, until it surfaced this morning?

places where the residue of everyday life—tools, coins, jewelry, buttons— might still reside. Lance always wanted to be an archaeologist, and even while pursuing an administrative career, he racked up scores of intriguing finds in his spare time: a galaxy of buttons, a commissary of soldier’s things, an exchequer’s purse of ancient coins.

Yet all these treasures represent hundreds of hours of listening and listening. Now, as Rick homes in on his signal, hunching down by the bare soil and stubble, he detaches a microphone-like probe from his detector and plunges it into the ground. As the beeping grows ever stronger and more constant, he trowels out more dirt, searching for whatever it is, noting that “a diamond ring makes the same sound as a pop top, so you gotta dig.”

Eventually, from all of that obscuring dirt, something impossibly small and old and lost reveals itself: His first find of the day is a tiny bell. Using his

Dave examines it carefully and pronounces it a King George III British halfpenny, minted before the Revolutionary War, meaning that it crossed the ocean on a sailing ship and passed from person to person till it persisted with someone who likely walked or rode a horse into this North Country valley, some 3,000 miles from London. Though only four inches below the surface of the soil, it has outlasted kings and presidents, soldiers and settlers, and years and years of corn harvests.

Next, Lance finds a man’s coat button—a disc similar to the halfpenny, but lighter, without marks, and with only the tiny hasp where thread would have kept it close to the fabric. “Tombac,” Lance pronounces proudly— which means it’s made of tin, lead, and arsenic, a material coin makers used from the late 1700s to early 1800s.

It’s like an advanced-level Easter-egg hunt, where the best eggs were hidden anywhere from 100 to 200 years ago or longer, unintentionally, by predecessors

THOUGH ONLY FOUR INCHES BELOW THE SOIL’S SURFACE, THIS 250-YEAR-OLD HALFPENNY HAS OUTLASTED KINGS AND PRESIDENTS, SOLDIERS AND SETTLERS, AND YEARS AND YEARS OF CORN HARVESTS.

Use your smartphone to scan for a video portrait of this group of treasure hunters.

ABOVE , FROM LEFT : Dave Linck, Rick Comfort, and Lance Comfort take a break from their treasure hunt in a cornfield in northern Vermont. BELOW : Dave Linck searches a wooded area in Vermont’s Caledonia County.

who could never have anticipated how diligently these three men would search for facets of their ordinary lives.

KEEPERS

CRAFTSBURY COMMUNITY CARE CENTER, CRAFTSBURY, VERMONT

Twelve seniors are all gathered around a dining-room table when Dave Linck arrives with something tucked under his arm. Silverware, napkin holders, and condiments are whisked aside to make way for the shoebox he places on the table. Forgoing elaborate introductions, he gets down to business: “I’m here to share some items with you.” Challenging the memories of the sharpest 80- and 90-year-olds in the group, Dave opens the box in hopes that these resident experts can further elucidate his local findings. He begins with an easy mystery. “Anyone know what this is?” he asks, holding up a

small capsule of metal. “If you had an old car, what might this be?”

They stare, dumbfounded, understandably; it’s a license-plate illuminator from the 1930s. Next he holds up something that looks like the handle of a screwdriver. Again—it could be anything. Turns out, it’s a valve cap for a tire, circa 1920s.

“And this piece is heavy. Anyone know what this is? It’s a piece of brass; it’s got a big hole here and threads. For years we were digging these up; we thought they were bedpost tops, so we just threw them in our pouches and brought ’em home. Just this year we figured it out.

“Think about it,” he coaxes. “We’re finding them in fields. What if I’ve got an ox with sharp points on his horns, or a bull?” Then he reveals the answer: “It’s an ox knob!” And he pantomimes the act of screwing the knob onto each gore-threatening horn.

“How about this?” Dave asks. “Have you ever been chased by a bull? This can be opened up and punched through

the bull’s nostril as a ring.”

And another treasure. “Ladies, does this look familiar?” They all nod affirmatively—it’s a purse closure. Dave pops its metal jaws open and shut; the fabric is long gone.

“Now here’s something. For a couple of years we didn’t know what they were. We found them on a hillside, in a field …” It looks like a plain ring. “It’s an umbrella slide—the push-up ring! Now why is that out there?”

“Yes, how did it get into the middle of a field?” one woman asks.

As the group ponders this mystery, a woman who seemed to be dozing snaps up and says, “A picnic!”

“Bingo!” Dave grins. “They had a parasol to keep out the sun.”

He continues unpacking artifacts; a sterling-silver cigarette case is next. “Have you ever taken a cigarette from a case like this?” Dave asks the woman closest to him.

She looks aghast. “Not lately! But I was around when those were in fashion.”

“How ’bout these, gentlemen?”

Lance Comfort’s collection of Civil War finds includes buttons, belt buckles, and other metal artifacts.

They’re suspender clasps. “If you’re working around an old homesite, you’re bound to find these.” Dave holds out some more palm-size mysteries: a horse’s bridle rosettes, a Boy Scout’s neckerchief clip. Then he holds up his prize; it’s the size of a credit card, with tiny wheels and a toothpick-size stylus. He found four of these in the same little area; it’s a Stevenson Pocket Adder, patented in 1873. At the town clerk’s office, he learned that the man who lived on that land in the 1930s was a CPA. Perhaps he’d used these in his early days when he was just getting started as an accountant.

“And here’s a medal for marksmanship prior to World War II,” Dave continues. “It cost $1.42—probably for rifle or artillery.” A man with cataract glasses says, “Yes, I got one in camp in 1941.”

Dave asks, “Know where it is now?”

“Nope,” the veteran answers.

“Ah, the most mundane things bring back memories,” Dave sighs as he dangles a final item in front of the woman who remembers cigarette cases. “Oh,” she gasps as her cheeks flush, “it’s one of those garter clips.”

Now the dining table is littered with finds like fillings pried out of the earth’s mouth. These clues to past lives, these bits of metal, staple our present day against another’s time.

LOSERS AND WEEPERS: CRAFTSBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, CRAFTSBURY, VERMONT

In “A Forgotten Poet,” a story by Vladimir Nabokov, his character, Konstantin Perov, writes, “If metal is immortal then somewhere / there lies the burnished button I lost / upon my seventh birthday in a garden. / Find me that button and my soul will know / that every soul is saved and stored and treasured.”

If only Konstantin had lost his button in Craftsbury, for within the town’s approximately 6-by-6-mile territory, Dave and his trusty detector

GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR FINDING TREASURES BENEATH THE GROUND

Some hobbyists hunt for coins, buttons, jewelry, or relics of any age, and some focus on artifacts from particular eras; finding the niche you enjoy most is something that evolves with practice. Metal detectors can be purchased for as little as $100; some are specific to one type of hunting, while others are generalized. The VLF (very low frequency) type is the most popular and most versatile for general detecting on dry land; the simpler VLF detectors are good starting points for beginners, so that you don’t get overwhelmed by too many features and manual settings. Additional recommended equipment includes a trowel, a ground cloth, headphones, a two-pocket apron (nail apron), and a handheld pinpointer to isolate the target. Before you head out into the field, check online forums, peruse old maps, or get information on sites of local historical interest. Be sure to get permission to search on private property, and be aware that federal laws protect most historic lands. New England offers many treasure-hunting clubs and online forums to help you get started. Here’s a selection. —compiled by Taylor Thomas

CONNECTICUT

Nutmeg Treasure Hunters, North Haven. Members are eager to offer advice to beginners. Member-organized expeditions. nutmegtreasurehunters.com Nor’easters Metal Detecting Club, Stamford. Group hunts. noreasters.net

MASSACHUSETTS

Gateway Treasure Hunters, Wareham. Members post photos of and questions about their finds, hunt locations, and equipment. gthclub.com

Massachusetts Treasure Hunting Association, Newton Highlands. Members organize hunts and “Find of the Month” contests. masstreasure.com

Silver City Treasure Seekers, Taunton. Holds an annual treasure show, club hunts, and coin contests. silvercitytreasureseekers.net/about_us.html

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Granite State Treasure Hunters Club for Historic Preservation, Londonderry. Started in 1974, this is the oldest registered club of its kind in the state, welcoming everyone from the experienced pro to newcomers. gsthc.org

MAINE

Metal Detecting Maine. An online club. Members and guests are welcome to use the online forum to seek advice, post findings, ask questions, and identify finds. metaldetectingmaine.com

ONLINE

North East Metal Detecting Forum northeastmetaldetectingforum.com

Friendly Metal Detecting Forum metaldetectingforum.com

have recovered all manner of immortal metals, including belt buckles that once snugged against bellies and thimbles that capped fingertips. The basement of the town’s historical society abounds with burnished objects discovered in yards and fields across town. The finds are piled in groups: locks, bullets, watches, knives, hose ends … yes, buttons … and my favorite: a whole fleet of toy cars. “Including this one,” Dave says, “the one I found out by your big tree.”

I look at it and imagine a child in the 1940s playing out by the oak, then being called in for supper, abandoning his car, and somehow losing track of it in

the tall grass, as the oak grows and the years pass. Then Dave hears it 70 years later as he sweeps his detector around what’s now my lawn. The earth beneath us is like a mind full of copper and zinc memories, pieces of a gigantic puzzle. I trace the car’s fender with my finger, wondering to whom this treasure belonged, and who he grew up to be.

Julia Shipley is a Yankee contributing editor. Her recent story collection, Adam’s Mark: Writing from the Ox-House, was chosen by the Boston Globe as one of the best books of 2014.

THE SINGLE SOLDIER

In small towns throughout New England stand statues of a Civil War soldier, memorials to the nation’s deadliest conflict, which ended 150 years ago this April. We see them everywhere, yet they are nearly invisible.

BY CASTLE FREEMAN

ON HUNDREDS OF VILLAGE GREENS ACROSS NEW ENGLAND, in hundreds of city parks, before hundreds of libraries and town halls, stands a figure known by all but hardly thought of, hardly seen perhaps, except on occasions calling for official reminiscence. It’s not surprising that this individual would be widely overlooked. He doesn’t have a lot to say, and with the passing of time—time measured in generations—he becomes, so to speak, lighter, thinner, nearly invisible. Still, quiet though his life has been, this year he’ll be busy.

It was 150 years ago this April 9, in a house at a dusty crossroads in rural Virginia, that the Civil War ended. Even all these decades later, that struggle remains, for better and for worse, the sovereign event in American history. Recent research has concluded that the death toll in the Civil War has long been undercounted. In fact, it far exceeded the number who have died in all other American conflicts put together, from the Revolutionary War of 1775–83, through both World Wars and the Vietnam War, to the latest campaigns in the Middle East. As many as 800,000, on both sides, died in the war of 1861–65. The federal union of the states ordained by

the Constitution was upheld, and chattel slavery in the Southern states was abolished, but at an overwhelming, unbearable cost in suffering and loss.

After 150 years, what remains of that climactic ordeal? In human terms, nothing. The last reliably authenticated veteran of the Civil War died in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1956, age 109. The children of the soldiers and sailors who did the fighting are long gone, and their grandchildren are precious few. Nor are more recent successors ageless. I am a Civil War greatgrandson on both sides, and I can testify that even the fourth generation, though still numerous, is getting more than a little gray at the muzzle.

Of course it is. Flesh and bone and mind—whatever undergoes experience and remembers—eventually dwindle, fade, and disappear. What does not, what endures, are iron and bronze, marble and granite.

Hence, the unfailing presence all over our region of memorials to local men who served in the war, in particular the ubiquitous “Single Soldier,” a freestanding figure of a Civil War infantryman cast in stone or bronze, equipped with

Sergeant Alexander Crawford Jr. of the 21st Maine Volunteer Infantry. Wounded at Petersburg, Virginia, in July 1864, he recovered and rejoined his regiment in February 1865. He was later commissioned a lieutenant and assumed command of Company G, 31st Maine Volunteers.

the familiar kepi-style cap, a coat or cape, a cartridge box and bayonet on his belt, and a rifle. If you live in New England, then at least one of these soldiers is your neighbor.

I have long been a keen student, a kind of collector, of these memorial military men. Driving around, I keep an eye out for them, and when I find one, I try to stop and pay my respects. It turns out that there’s quite a lot to learn about our ancient veterans. This silent army is like its living original in that the soldiers look very much the same from one to another, but aren’t, though the differences among them are subtle. All were modeled on a famous figure carved in granite as a war memorial by a Hartford, Connecticut, company and placed in the 1870s on the Antietam battlefield. Most are life-size, perhaps a little less by the physical standard of men today, who are on average taller than they were in the mid-19th century. These memorial soldiers are placed in at least half a dozen different attitudes, but all strike a stance that is some variation of what the Civil War armies’ drill-field manuals called “parade rest.” In this position, the soldier often faces squarely front, his weight evenly on both feet, his boots a couple of feet apart. He holds his rifle, which comes about to his throat, aligned with the vertical center of his body, its butt stock grounded between his boots. He grasps the rifle in both hands somewhere along the forward quarter of the barrel’s length; sometimes the right hand is uppermost, sometimes the left. So placed, the soldier gazes resolutely before him.

In another, better, version of the Single Soldier, he stands a little differently, with his left foot advanced a few inches, the knee bent, his weight on the other foot. His rifle’s butt rests not in front of his body but off to his right; the rifle is at an angle to the soldier, who holds it with both hands near the barrel’s end, left hand on top, and seems to rest against it or lean on it somewhat. These more-relaxed soldiers show far more life than the others. The comparatively rigid frontal figures have little feeling or vitality. They have an archaic presence; they might be on the Acropolis. The slightly oblique soldier, however, bears a real expression. He’s not looking straight ahead, but a little to his left.

He looks thoughtful, and he looks tired. Also in this variation, the Single Soldier seems to wear a stiff, trimmed beard (it can be hard to see). The beard, and his somber attitude, make the soldier, in what was probably not a chance resemblance, look a little like a shorter Abraham Lincoln.

Single Soldiers were carved in granite, marble, or brownstone and cast in bronze or zinc. Many of them were put up in the 1880s and ’90s. Some were commissioned as original works, but most were mass-produced, off-the-rack items ordered from various stonecutters, metal foundries, and cemetery monument dealers in Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.

One supplier of Civil War memorial soldiers was the Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts, a venerable firm that began as a toolmaker in the 1790s and by about 1835 had become the first successful commercial bronze foundry in the country. Beginning in about 1835, Ames established itself as a supplier of bronze products of many kinds, for many uses. During the war, the company was well placed for prosperity. Ames made the church bells to summon the volunteers to service. Then, when the fighting was well under way, Ames made the cannons that did the killing. At last, when the war was over, Ames made the memorials to the fallen. You could say that Ames had the action pretty well sewn up. Perhaps it’s some such thought that makes the Single Soldier look so pensive as he stands his silent guard.

Or perhaps his thoughts are elsewhere. Perhaps he’s pondering not the value of his Ames shares, but his own invisibility—or, as you might say, the mortality of his immortality in Ames’s bronze. In the park, on the green, in front of the courthouse, is the soldier remembered? Hardly—he’s part of the background. The village squirrels chase up and down the length of his rifle, the village sparrows perch on his shoulder, the village dogs visit. His boot anchors one end of the rope that holds up the tent that keeps the rain off the church bake sale. The soldier is ever-present but ever-unseen, ever-ignored.

After all, war memorials don’t work, do they? Memorials in general don’t work. Can’t be helped, the soldier might reflect.

“Old men forget,” Shakespeare’s youthful captain-king, Henry V, tells his followers, “yet all shall be forgot.” Be it so. In the meantime, to each his post of duty.

Flesh and bone and mind eventually dwindle, fade, and disappear. What endures are iron and bronze, marble and granite.

Bennington, New Hampshire

Castle Freeman is the author of nine books, including novels, essays, and short stories, many inspired by the land and people of Vermont.

In the Wadsworth–Longfellow House in Portland, Maine, we meet a family with a deep sense of history.

The Memory Keepers

Can New England’s small museums survive a nation’s short attention span?

Can they still bear witness to lives that mattered, to the stories they tell?

text by HOWARD MANSFIELD

photographic still life by DOUG MINDELL

Moonrise

The big yellow Wolf Moon rose large and close as we drove through Waltham, Massachusetts, headed to the “Full Moon Tour: Living in the Dark” at Gore Place, an early-19thcentury Federal-style mansion. I had imagined a sweep of moonlight falling through tall windows, a shadowy darkness that would slow us down, recalibrating our senses. We parked in a small lot and walked up the drive, which was lit by candles. From the front steps of the mansion we could see the Wolf Moon off to the right behind a gauze of clouds, and directly ahead, through the trees, the big red letters of a Walgreens.

There were seven of us for the tour: my wife and myself, a newspaper photographer, a young couple in their twenties who had heard about the tour on Twitter, and two senior citizens who had found a discount coupon for the tour online (paying less than the $16.37 per ticket that we paid).

Our volunteer host, Stu, was in period dress, wearing a brown cutaway coat with broad lapels and tails, and narrow wire-rim glasses. Stu knew his facts about life in the dark, about the Gores, and about the house’s hard life. You couldn’t ask for a better tour guide.

Christopher Gore was a Massachusetts governor and U.S. senator. His house, built in 1806 to the design of a French architect, is stately and impressive. The two-story spiral staircase, an innovation in New England at the time, is a great piece of theatre. The oval drawing room with tall windows and the marble-floored Great Hall have the lavish scale of an embassy.

The Gores have been gone a long time. When Christopher’s wife, Rebecca, died in 1834, the house and its contents were auctioned off. The house passed through eight owners before being rescued from demolition in 1935 by a group of Beacon Hill women who formed the Gore Place Society and bought it.

The estate sits on 50 acres, and that land is the museum’s livelihood. The staff operates a 10-acre farm and sells produce at a farm stand. They also rent out snowshoes to tour the grounds; there were four tubs of them in the old

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP : The mansion at Gore Place in Waltham, Massachusetts, was built in 1806 for Rebecca and Christopher Gore, governor of the Commonwealth and later a U.S. senator; a portrait of Christopher Gore by John Trumbull; the elegant Great Hall, with marble floor and hand-block-printed wall covering; the well-appointed dining room.

CHARLES KRUPA/AP PHOTO (EXTERIOR, INTERIOR, PAINTING); COURTESY OF GORE PLACE (DINING ROOM)

drying room where the tour began. Stu gave us a pitch for the museum’s other events: Jane Austen tours, a Poe impersonator, concerts, Christmas teas and Santa teas for children, and his favorite, held on the last Saturday in April, the sheep-shearing festival. “It’s just a total hoot,” he said. In 2013, 17,000 people showed up. That was an exceptional year; it was two weeks after the Boston Marathon bombing and people wanted to get outside. On that day with 17,000 people on the grounds, just 400 toured the house, first floor only, a 10-minute sample, “a taste portion.”

pre-digital era you didn’t have to promise visitors the sun, moon, and stars to get them in the door. But now, what’s a small museum to do?

On Gore Place’s Web site, the page referring to renting out the house and grounds for weddings and events says, “Gore Place is your historic country manor for the day.” Gore Place is like a historic tuxedo or a period ball gown that you might rent. It’s history—not any specific historical story. It’s just a spritz of history. It’s a setting, a backdrop.

Is the house a little lost?

cats without end out of your hat. Many other museums are handing out snowshoes (Fruitlands and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum), offering do-it-yourself “letterboxing”-style scavenger hunts (Charles River Museum) and hosting teddy-bear teas (Concord Museum and many others).

This application of theme-park show biz is sometimes called “edutainment,” a word that is proudly used by some museums as they try to lindy-hop with Disney. “We can’t compete with a roller coaster,” says the vice president of Colonial Williamsburg, “but we can provide what one guest called ‘a Disney World for the mind.’ We take that as a compliment.”

In addition to the sheep festival, each year 6,000 total tour the house, another 6,000 attend programs, and 34,000 visit the Web site. Those are robust numbers that many small house museums would welcome.

As for our Full Moon Tour, it was more implied than lived, more explained than experienced. We were in only one room that was candlelit. Another room had a combination of a candle and some LED lights in Argand lamps. Most rooms were dimly lit, or our guide might turn down the light as a sepulchral, gray-haired woman in a long black dress swept in behind us to close the doors.

Was the tour over-promised? It wasn’t a tour by moonlight, but it was a good tour led by an energetic guide. In an earlier, pre-Internet era, most visitors would have been satisfied. It’s homemade and, like old radio, asks that you use your imagination. But today, how can a house tour compete? It can’t be as tightly paced as a 12-part cableTV drama queued up for binge watching. It can’t dash click-by-click to match your whim. Not long ago, historical memory was New England’s great story to tell a nation hungry for history. New England has the greatest concentration of museums in the country, of which half are history museums. Back in that

“Not a chance,” says Susan Robertson, who has been the museum’s director for more than 20 years. About a dozen years ago the museum staff began to use the house as a “stage” to tell stories like “Living in the Dark.” Before that they did the expected museum thing: They explained their collections. But “no one was coming to visit us,” she says. “And nobody had heard about us. My staff would go to cocktail parties and say they worked at Gore Place, and the guests would say: ‘Where? What? Who?’”

All the theme tours, teas, and impersonators are to draw the public in and give the museum a chance to tell the Gores’ story, Robertson says: “You also have to be very clever in this business if you’re going to engage the public and get them in. We have a pretty sophisticated public in Boston, don’t we? Lots to see and do. Not necessarily going to come to a house museum.”

Gore Place is a model of the museum-as-festival: Weddings! Moonlight tours! Snowshoe trails! Fancy teas! (“Mother’s Day Tea,” said one reviewer on Yelp, “though it was nice … they could step it up with more goodies, better tea selection, and lemonade for kids.”) The museum may be following what I’m coming to think of as the “Cat in the Hat” model: If you want to attract the public, you have to keep pulling

Disney is in the happiness business. (“Happiness,” says an employee manual, “is our principal product.”) That seems straightforward. But today many museums are following Disney’s lead. Should a museum be in the happiness business? A great deal of history is not happy.

The Age of Peak Distraction

“People want their buttons pushed all the time. There’s no room for stepping back and contemplating. Or being quiet,” says Michelle Stahl, director of the Monadnock Center for History and Culture in Peterborough, New Hampshire. “When you think about the great museums—the Metropolitan, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston—they’re all built on that ‘cathedral of culture’ model. These huge, grand spaces with the rotunda. It’s all inviting you on the subliminal level. You’re entering a sacred place. And there’s not a lot of room for that now. The younger generation expects not to just be a passive recipient. We’re in this really participatory culture now. Everybody’s an author; everybody’s a curator; everybody’s got a blog.”

And the younger generation is leery of historical societies. The Monadnock Center for History and Culture has recently shed its old name, the Peterborough Historical Society. The word “Society” made it seem like an exclusive club that you had to be invited to join, Stahl says. Though that was true years

Not long ago, historical memory was New England’s great story to tell a nation hungry for history.

ago, the impression lingered. It was necessary to “break down the barriers so people can see: ‘Oh yeah, that’s for me, that’s something I can go to.’

“There’s also kind of a derogatory thing around historical societies. If I had a dollar for every time somebody says, ‘Oh, you work at the “hysterical” society.’ People say that to me all the time. It’s an old-lady thing. It’s not seen as valuable or important.”

The renaming of the Peterborough Historical Society and the storytelling at Gore Place are typical of what I hear when I meet with curators, or meet with the exhibition committee I serve on at a state historical society, or read about how museum attendance is falling. The question always is: How do we get people to pay attention? Everyone is chasing the audience, and the audience is off, head bowed over a smartphone.

“We live in an age of peak distraction,” says Malcolm McCullough, author of Ambient Commons: Attention in the Age of Embodied Information. “Never has distraction had such capacity to become total.” When everyone is busily slinging electrons at each other—information—why go stand in a museum and look at an old shoe in a glass case? Why, in fact, go anywhere? Just Google it.

Our Broken Timeline

The Wadsworth–Longfellow House sits back just a few steps on busy Congress Street in Portland, Maine. The red-brick Federal-style mansion is for-

mal, reserved. Inside, the house has a quietude that is like entering another atmosphere. What’s striking is how thick history seems to be here. For three generations, the life of the Wadsworths and the Longfellows revolved around this house. They were record keepers. Stephen Longfellow, father of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was a founder of the Maine Historical

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP : Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and family in Italy, 1869; c. 1961, the Wadsworth–Longfellow House, built in 1785 for Henry’s grandparents; Henry’s desk overlooking the back garden; Anne Longfellow Pierce, Henry’s younger sister, seen here c. 1890, shepherded the house into the 20th century.

Society, and Henry served as the society’s librarian. The family knew that their story was important.

I’ve come to Portland to talk to John Mayer, museum curator of the Maine Historical Society. I haven’t come to look at the house, but it wins me over, slowly. Museums are in a hurry these days to set everything in motion. It’s a hard sell to tell people to come visit and be quiet, to listen and wait. That’s what the Longfellow House asks of us.

In the first two generations, the house was thick with life. Henry’s maternal grandfather and grandmother, Peleg and Elizabeth Wadsworth, had 10 children. Family letters recount happy scenes of Elizabeth’s children gathered around her, singing, playing games, or working on school lessons. Henry’s father and mother, Stephen and Zilpah Longfellow, had eight children.

On the second floor, you can see where little Eliza Wadsworth signed her name in the plaster of her family’s new home back in 1785 or 1786. By the back door on the first floor there are several handwritten “medallions” from different days in the 1830s to the 1850s. They mark important family events, but which ones are unknown, Mayer tells me as he shows me around. “We’ll keep looking at these to try and make more sense of them,” he says in the hushed tone the house calls forth from us.

And there are penciled notes on a third-floor window frame: “Friday eve’g July 14th 1837—a magnificent sunset of golden clouds.” And “how dear is the home of my childhood.” The family regarded the house with great affection from early on, calling it “the old original” in Henry’s time. It was a revered family touchstone.

Henry’s sister Anne lived here for 87 of her 90 years. She knew what the house meant to the family and to the nation. As tall buildings pressed in, she refused an offer to sell “the old original”—even with one building just inches away, so that the family had to block up the windows on that side. Most families would have sold, but Anne resolved to give their home to the historical society.

She left the society notes about the furnishings of the rooms. Any changes

she made to “the old original” were done carefully, as if she had taken an oath of “first do no harm” to the family home. Unlike her neighbors, she did not add natural gas for lighting. She used an outdoor privy—the last permitted privy in Portland.

What is unusual about this house is that it was passed down intact. It didn’t have the rough ride of many historic houses—a series of owners, hard use by churches and colleges, division into a rooming house, near-death demolition experiences and last-minute rescues (a standard preservation biography).

The family had an unusual sense of living in history, says Earle Shettleworth Jr., Maine’s state historian. Grand father Peleg knew George Washington. Henry was close to his grandfather, “so he becomes imbued as a boy with the early stories of the Revolution,” Shettleworth says. “And that’s a very important influence.” In three generations the family spanned the history of the nation. The Wadsworths and the Longfellows were timeline bearers.

Anne’s will specified that the house be preserved as a “Longfellow Memorial.” It opened as a shrine in 1901. The Longfellow House is the oldest house museum in Maine and one of the oldest in the country. (At the time there were only about two dozen house museums in America. Today there are 6,000.) It’s also the oldest surviving house on the peninsula in Portland. The Longfellows had a strong sense of history.

We don’t. We live in a society with a broken timeline. Without a sense of living in history, historical museums and societies are set adrift.

To step back out on Congress Street is to have the house’s lingering sense of history torn from you. Out on the street you rejoin the contemporary feeling of event following event 24/7: One thing happens, then another and another. News personal and political, local and

international. A baby is born; a bomb explodes someplace far away. If we lose small history museums, we’ll lose continuity; we’ll lose the witness of the generations. “The old original” is a witness to a surer sense of history. Witness is what breaks through the digital haze.

Witness

The Maine Coast Sardine History Museum in Jonesport is a sincere testament. To build it, Ronnie Peabody and his wife, Mary, put in their $15,000 savings and took out a $15,000 loan. Friends and neighbors donated money, building materials, and the loan of heavy equipment to build the gray-clapboard building. Inside, the Peabodys have corralled the remnants of a once-mighty industry. There are photos of the carriers that brought in the herring, parts of the boats, heavy canning equipment, and all along one wall, town by town, from Eastport to South Portland, each factory is represented by rows of colorful sardine tins. It’s like an art gallery with paintings that are, on average, about four inches tall.

On a hot day the museum smells like sardines. “I like the aroma,” Ronnie says. “I take a nice big breath …” —he inhales—“Ahhh! It brings back memories, boy.” Some of the cans still have sardines in them—70-year-old

ABOVE : Part of the long gallery of tins at the Maine Coast Sardine History Museum. BOTTOM : Each pair of scissors, with a woman’s name and hometown, represents a lifetime of 12-hour workdays.

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sardines. He takes those into his house in the winter and returns them in the summer.

Ronnie worked in a sardine factory for six years. His family was employed in the industry. His father was gone for weeks seining; his brother ran a flaking machine; and an uncle ran a wrapping machine. He’s 59, with white hair and beard, dressed in a gray sweatsuit and wearing rose-colored glasses, with a patch over his left eye. With Ronnie walking me through, I feel as though I’m being trained on my first day on the job. One of the first things he tells me is: “Remember they’re not sardines until they’re cut and put in a can. They’re herring up until then.”

He shows me each machine in detail: how it works, where it used to jam, where it had to be lubricated. The Universal No. 12 Closing Machine sits on the floor, nearly three tons of graypainted metal and its original grease. It was loaded in here in pieces on a forklift. “I put it together myself with a pallet jack and a box of wood and took a chance on my life,” Ronnie says.

Introduced in 1937, this machine was revolutionary, promising to seal 150 cans a minute. The industry was wary. It was never run at top speed; usually at 100 cans a minute. “They had what they always called too many ‘smashups,’ and believe you me, I’ve seen ’em,” Ronnie recalls. “And what a mess. Things start going that fast and all of a sudden you get a jam and it keeps going until you get over here and catch a button. There’s cans, there’s fish, and they’re all ground up; there’s oil.”

Ronnie goes over each part: the filler feed, the star wheel, the oil or mustard tube (depending on what the sardines were packed in), the can plate, the rocker that opened the tube’s nozzle— zzzt, zzzt, zzzt ; the chuck plate, the lifter, the knockout rod, the coder to mark the production run, the operation that curled the cover over the flange, and the one that flattened it, making the can airtight. All of this, not surprisingly, was “very noisy: pchoong, pchoong, pchoong … You had to step away to talk.”

The machinery, though quieted, has a brute presence. But the next exhibit is startlingly intimate—a wall of scissors

—80 in all on one wall and a new row starting on the back. They seem too simple for the task. Each pair of scissors, with a woman’s name and hometown, represents a life’s work cutting sardines, up to 12 hours a day, standing in one place on a cold, damp floor doing the same thing over and over. “And you wouldn’t believe the speed. They get in the motion; they’re just rocking,” he says, showing me. “I couldn’t believe it the first time I saw it. They had the hardest job in the factory. And that’s why we did this tribute wall to all packers.”

Ronnie shows me how the oldest scissors got shorter from being sharpened: “You can see how much some of them have been ground down over the years.” He shows me the scissors of

grew up in Jonesport, “all you heard day and night were carriers running up and down the reach, going out and getting a load of herring, bringing in a load, going out. And whistles blowing. You could hear them for miles. If you knew the tone of the whistle, you knew what factory had herring coming.”

Ronnie Peabody is a witness to a bygone industry and life. With this museum he is an ancient storyteller, a memory keeper for his coastal tribe. The museum’s exhibits are the real thing, but it’s Ronnie’s witness that makes it live.

Jonesport is probably far away from where you live, but go. Allow time for Ronnie to show you around. In his enthusiasm you’ll find what’s lacking

The Late Eliza “Lizzie” Beal, Beals, ME. “See how short these blades are? It’d take the length right off of them.”

I look at the scissors, each so individual and expressive: Muriel Beal, Milbridge, ME. Her first pair was provided by the Stinson Canning Co. in 1943. Aloma Alley, Jonesport, ME. Rusty and dark. Bertha Mattheson, Dennysville, ME. Worn smooth with a dull sheen like an old nickel. Velma Trundy, Stonington, ME. Dirty white cloth or tape wrapped around the top handle. The Late Agnes Crowley, Beals, ME. Agnes’s scissors look well-tended and ready for the day’s cutting.

This entire museum could be filled with scissors, floor to ceiling; they probably could be lined up by the mile, each a witness to thousands of factory days. What’s left unsaid is all the work and childrearing waiting at home.

Without the sardines, Ronnie doesn’t know how everyone on the coast would have survived. He wants visitors to know “how big the industry really was. It was the financial backbone of the coast.” Over time there were more than 400 factories along the coast. When he

in too many museum visits. You’ll leave thinking about the hard work of the past and about what we do and don’t do for work today. And, if you’re so inclined, pause in front of the wall of scissors and offer a silent blessing for all those women who stood for 12 hours a day cutting the sardines, and for the men out catching the herring, and for the whole lost past and the blind present.

The Past Will Not Sleep

Many small history museums are starved for visitors. Some house museums will have to close, insist some of the leaders in preservation. They may be too hasty. Yes, some museums offer only dead-end tours of some old fossil’s highboy, and some are stuck giving teddy-bear teas to survive, but they have a story to tell if they can be revived. We’re never free of the past. Or as Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The Past will not sleep, it works still. With every new fact a ray of light shoots up from the long buried years.”

Pause in front of the wall of scissors and offer a silent blessing for all those women who stood for 12 hours a day cutting the sardines.

I thought about this when I picked up a brochure for the Royall House and Slave Quarters. We know that Northerners had slaves, but we’ve forgotten the real story for a more convenient tale about the righteous North. The Royall House is a prime example of what a revival looks like.

Peter Gittleman first heard about the Royall House back in the 1980s. He was 24 and working as a guide at a historic house when he met Julia Royall at a party. “Oh you should visit my family home,” she said. Her family home was now a museum and she was on the board. Her family had been gone a long time from that house. The Royalls were Loyalists who fled the country at the start of the Revolution, leaving behind their 500-acre farm and three-story mansion in Medford, Massachusetts. During the war the house became headquarters for Generals John Sullivan and Charles Lee and Colonel John Stark. The Royalls sold the house in 1806. It passed through several owners and was in rough shape, before the Daughters of

the American Revolution rescued it and established a museum in 1908.

Gittleman was upset by his first visit: The house tour “was largely about brown furniture.” The tour guide talked about Isaac Royall and the furniture makers. And there was little mention of slavery—even though the Royalls were the largest slaveholding family in Massachusetts. Isaac Royall Sr.’s fortune was built on slavery. In two decades in Antigua he had sold at least 274 slaves. Gittleman was told that Royall “was a kind master and his slaves undoubtedly liked him, which is a fantasy story that was, frankly, sort of appalling to me.”

In the forthright manner of a young man, he wrote a critical letter to the president of the board. The president wrote back and invited him to join. It would take Gittleman more than 20 years to turn things around. With Julia Royall, he worked to get the board to see that slavery is the story they must tell. Otherwise, he says, “we could just limp along as a completely marginal house museum. I went to the board and

I said, ‘Just because you’ve been around for 100 years, that doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to be around for the next 100 years. So we have to figure out what it is we want to be that’s going to be useful in the 21st century.’ And ultimately the board came around to believing that telling the story of Northern slavery was in fact something that we could do that nobody else could do in New England, because we have the only surviving slave quarters in New England.”

Now known as the Royall House and Slave Quarters, the revived museum has conducted extensive archaeology at its site and created a new school field-trip program. The Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities honored the museum with its Massachusetts History Commendation, citing it as “emerging as a leader in its field … and an example to other organizations with small purses and large plans.”

Gittleman remains on the museum’s board as its co-president and treasurer. “It could have gone either way,” he says. “We could be like any other sleepy house museum and just tell the story

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of the lovely Royalls and their lovely furnishings and their lovely silk bed hangings. But we didn’t. We took the riskier path.”

On a morning in early May, Kathleen Cutting has brought 22 fifth-graders from her social-studies class at Linden STEAM Academy in Malden, Massachusetts. They assemble in the slave quarters to listen to the museum’s education coordinator, Olivia Searcy, introduce the Royalls and the people they enslaved; at one point 34 Africans working to keep four whites comfortable. She explains what we know about

them today from digging up artifacts and studying the inventory made of Isaac Royall Sr.’s estate at his death in 1739.

The class is with Searcy all the way. They ask good questions: “Why did they pick Africans to enslave?” and “Did any ever escape from the Royalls?” The fifth-graders have been studying slavery and have worked with some prep

materials sent by the museum. When Searcy shows a picture of Isaac Royall Sr.’s probate inventory and asks what it is, many hands go up. “Look at this— amazing!” Searcy says. They identify his inventory, and Searcy elaborates: It’s “a list of all his property—every single thing, every horse, every cup, every bowl, every blanket, every enslaved person.” That inventory, she says, “is how we know a little bit about the lives of the enslaved people. If there were no inventory, we’d have only a few things to piece together to figure that out.”

Searcy’s presentation puts the daily objects of use back into the slaves’ hands: a chipped milk pan, a dinner plate, a sewing kit. This is no longer an empty house. Searcy refers to “enslaved people” as a way of keeping the slaveholders in the picture. You weren’t a slave “because you were born a certain way,” she says. “Somebody chose to do this to you.”

She introduces two of the Royalls’ slaves: a boy, Joseph, age 13, and a girl, Prine, age 7. The ages are estimates and they’re portrayed as full-size silhouettes in the kitchen because there are no descriptions of them (in contrast to the two Royall children, Mary and Elizabeth, whose full-length portrait by John Singleton Copley hangs in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts).

Joseph and Prine were Belinda’s children. When Belinda was 12, she was taken from her family in Ghana and enslaved, first in Antigua. At age 70, in 1783, Belinda petitioned the Massachussetts legislature for an annual pension to be paid by the Royalls’ estate to support herself and her sick daughter. She won. Her petition, along with the 1739 inventory, are the two key historical documents that tell us about the Royall House and Slave Quarters.

The class tours the Royalls’ house, where the division between free and enslaved is stark. The rooms for the Royalls have elaborate woodwork, fireplace tiles, and, in one room, fauxmarble pilasters. The rooms where the slaves worked are spare, their bedding modest, in one case perhaps nothing more than some old grain bags stuffed with straw or corn husks. The canopied bed in the Royalls’ “Marble Room” was

FROM TOP : Olivia Searcy, education coordinator for the Royall House in Medford, Massachusetts, stands next to a reproduction of John Singleton Copley’s portrait of Mary and Elizabeth Royall; an archaeological excavation near the slave quarters found everyday objects.

worth 200 pounds, according to the inventory—as much as the entire slave quarters. “You have a bed and a building that are worth the same amount of money,” Searcy says. “That says something about what’s important to you.”

Back in the slave quarters, near the end of their visit, one of the students, Tzuriel Ligunya-Muisyo, has a question: Why did the day go by so fast? “I felt like this was only even 10 minutes.” This is what every museum curator and docent would like to hear from their visitors.

The Royall House could have limped along telling a story of furniture. It could have closed. But here it is with an important story to tell. If being the story bearer to the nation is still New England’s role—or, to put it in modern terms, if historical memory is New England’s brand, then it should be true to the brand. Be honest about it: Northerners kept slaves. Tell the truth, tell it well, have a tireless education program and curators with the stamina of athletes, and just maybe the public will visit. History isn’t a Happy Meal; it’s not a teddy-bear tea.

Witness to History

GORE PLACE

Waltham, MA. 781-894-2798; goreplace.org

MONADNOCK CENTER FOR HISTORY AND CULTURE

Peterborough, NH 603-924-3235; monadnockcenter.org

WADSWORTH–LONGFELLOW HOUSE Portland, ME 207-774-1822; hwlongfellow.org

MAINE COAST SARDINE MUSEUM

Jonesport, ME. 207-497-2961; mainesardinemuseum.tripod.com

ROYALL HOUSE AND SLAVE QUARTERS

Medford, MA 781-396-9032; royallhouse.org

Howard Mansfield has written for Yankee for more than 25 years. He’s the author, co-author, or editor of 10 books, many of which explore issues of historical memory and preservation. His most recent book, Dwelling in Possibility: Searching for the Soul of Shelter, was published in 2014.

Woodworking Shop

Former Bon Appetit editor, Pat Brown discovered that living at Thornton Oaks affords plenty of cultural opportunities. “If you’re looking for interesting things to do, you don’t have to look very far,” Pat says. “Activities at Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, museums

www.ThorntonOaks.com

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Our Love of

OLD

Warmth suffuses the stenciled walls and floors of the LeBeau reproduction, with antique portraits enhancing the mood in the dining room and hallway.

OPPOSITE : The timbers of a 250-year-old barn, bought for $1,000, form the skeleton of the 1984 gambrel.

The Oldest New House in New England

one Maine

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ERIC ROTH STYLING BY TRACY PARKINSON

he light feels old …

What’s surprising, though, is the warmth of color saturating the walls and furniture: dark mustard thick enough to sink your teeth into; rosy wooden chairs, like faded flowers; a dough box the color of silvery lichen.

On this snowy April morning in Newcastle, Maine, I will step into a house that comes alive with candlelight almost every night. The downstairs fireplaces in Bob and Carol LeBeau’s wine-red gambrel will crackle and glow, casting shadows over 18th-century panels in the living room and in the “summer kitchen,” as Bob likes to call the side entrance, where an ancient-looking yellow mantel is strung with cranberries and spiked with dried pineapples.

Wood speaks. There’s no faking antiquity. Everything about this house feels old as the hills, or at least the 1700s.

BY ANNIE GRAVES

Except that it was built in 1984.

“We looked at old homes in the Newcastle/Damariscotta area,” Bob recalls. The couple was relocating from Massachusetts to Maine, and Carol remembers, “I wanted wooden ceilings, old beams, wide pine flooring, and fireplaces. Realestate agents would take us around to places, but there would be no fireplaces, or everything old had been taken out. So we started looking for land.”

They found five acres, high on a hill, away from the road. Serendipity handed them a young carpenter who was renovating a ski lodge in Brooks, Maine, on Bob’s sales route, about 1½ hours away. His name was Gary Chard. He’d never built a house.

The three met over dinner. Bob and Carol brought all the measurements of their previous home, a reproduction gambrel they’d built in Acushnet. “We drew everything on a

How

couple turned a 1984 house into the antique of their dreams.

napkin of how we wanted this house to be,” Bob says. “And then we told him, ‘Make it look as old as you can.’ That was the week of Christmas.”

He catches Carol’s eye and grins: “A couple weeks after New Year’s, Gary called and said, ‘Bob, can you send me a thousand dollars? I want to buy a barn.’ I said, ‘Gary, what the hell are you buying a barn for?’ And he said, ‘I’m buying it for the timbers and the flooring.’”

Gary brought the 250-year-old barn to his property in Brooks and cut the beams there, using the measurements written on the napkin. He rented a flatbed to transport the beams and arrived with the old timbers in tow—and absolutely no way of raising them. “He went out to Route 1, bought a cup of coffee, and stood outside until one of those cherry pickers went by,” Bob says, shaking his head. “He hired the guy for a couple of days, and that’s how they got the beams up.”

Adding Age

With the massive structural beams in place and handmade bricks lining the fireplace, the antique bones were set. But 30 years ago, the “Colonial look” often meant Ethan Allen reproduction furniture. “We picked out country wallpaper for most of the rooms and stenciled wallpaper for the dining room,” Carol says. “And all the floors were honey pine, coated with urethane.”

“Then, about four years after we moved here, we made a mistake. We got into antiques,” Bob continues. “At first, we got refinished antiques, because that was in vogue. Then we bought our first piece of painted furniture, which we still have— a TV cupboard. Once we got one painted piece, we began replacing all the refinished antiques. Then we decided we didn’t like the way the wallpaper looked. We wanted real stenciling.”

They removed all the wallpaper. And tinkered with paints and stencils, trying to make the walls look older. “The first room we tried was the living room,” Carol says. “We painted it white, and my husband put a stenciled border around it, but it was too sterile, too white.

“I’m not a bright, airy person,” she laughs. “Then he put a wash on it, and it gave a warmer effect. When it dried, it was perfect.”

In

Tips for Adding Age (for Every Budget)

Stencils and a wash of paint can add years to the look of a home, if done properly; the main investment is time, not money. Here are some additional strategies that the LeBeaus have used, from low- to high-budget.

LOWER BUDGET

Wall stenciling

(see Bob’s recipe online at: YankeeMagazine .com/Stencil )

Floor stenciling and stenciled floorcloths

Painted antiques, not refinished (in all colors and prices, from bowls to cupboards)

Antique portraits, even if they’re not your own ancestors (“We think an old house would have had portraits of the family—none of them is related to us,” Bob says.)

Old doors

Natural decorating materials (Carol uses fruit that she dries naturally or in a dehydrator, including pineapples, oranges, apples, and cranberries.) Candles (“In winter, around 4:00 o’clock, we light candles throughout the house,” Bob says.

“We probably go through a gross of candles a year.”)

BIGGER BUDGET

Chair rails and beaded panels around the bottom third of the dining room

An early-1800s carved wall from a Connecticut house installed in the upstairs master bedroom

A large 18th-century carved wooden wall in the living room

Wooden ceilings (covering over plaster)

Rufus Porter–style painted murals in the hall and stairway

front of the Wolf range, a vintage breadbox serves as the kitchen’s center island; the blue hutch conceals an under-the-counter fridge. (The large one was banished to the basement to make room for an 18th-century cupboard.)

OPPOSITE : Bob and Carol bought the entire 18th-century wall that anchors their living room in Manchester, New Hampshire.

It was a turning point for the couple and for the house. Instead of stripping away the years—the usual route when an old house is being renovated—Bob and Carol began layering years on. “At that point it became a lifestyle for us,” Bob says. “Our bible was the Stencil House at the Shelburne Museum [in Vermont], where every room was stenciled.” After the walls, they tackled the floors, painting and stenciling those as well.

The house was almost unrecognizable from the one they’d built. And still the LeBeaus dug deeper into history. “I’m a docent at the Chapman–Hall House [in Damariscotta],” Bob says. “It’s a 1754 house with beams like we have, but if you look up, they have wooden ceilings. So we put those in over the last 10 years, fitted in between the beams, to make it look older.”

And then they bought a wall.

Three years ago, at the annual New Hampshire Antiques Show in Manchester, they spotted a massive wall set up at the back of a dealer’s booth, with deeply carved panels, an opening for a fireplace, and doors on either side of the panels. “We fell in love with it,” Bob says, still awestruck. “It was an incredible 18th-century wall.”

With a little bit of jiggering—covering over more of the fireplace bricks—

they made it fit. (And in the end, even more authentic. “Back in the olden days, they tried to hide as much of the brick as they could,” Bob notes.)

If these walls could talk, they might recount tales of their travels. But they’ve come home, anchored to a new wall. Nestled around are massive hutches lined with pewter tankards, stacks of cobalt-blue hatboxes, a tall and slender barber pole, blanket chests that have outlived their blankets. Hand-rubbed with age, burnished with time, they almost seem to glow.

“If you came here in the first week we moved here, and you came in here now, there’s nothing that’s the same except the beams,” Bob says. “The house has kept us busy for 25 years. We haven’t stopped.

“But there’s not much more we can do,” he adds, almost sheepishly. “It looks kinda old to me at this point.”

Carol shakes her head, smiles, and points to the fireplace wall in the summer kitchen. “He’s looking for an old wall to put over there,” she says. Her eyes get dreamy: “We’d take all this out and put an original 18th-century wall there. That’s one thing he’d love to do.” Maybe it’s not quite over.

Share your old-house photos with us on Instagram! Tag them: #yankeehomes

Where to Shop

Much of the LeBeaus’ furniture is 18th-century; mostly they shop Maine, especially Wiscasset and York. Here are a few more favorite sources.

Roundtop Antiques Show

Damariscotta, ME. More than 70 Maine dealers; late August. maineantiques.org

New Hampshire Antiques Show Manchester, NH. New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association; early August. nhada.org

Kaja Veilleux/Thomaston Place Thomaston, ME. One of the biggest auctioneers in Maine. thomastonauction.com

OPPOSITE , CLOCKWISE FROM TOP : A folk-art fireboard graces an 18th-century wall in the master bedroom; a seamless color palette flows from hallway to dining room; the living-room hutch displays pewter alongside early hatboxes and an old-fashioned barber pole. THIS PAGE , FROM LEFT : Stacked yellowware decorates a corner cupboard in the dining room; the hallway mural include scenes from neighboring Sheepscot; stair treads pop with their own stenciled treatment.

Yankee contributing editor Annie Graves writes the magazine’s regular “Could You Live Here?” column.

The Shades of an Era

A brief history of house color in New England.

BY ANNIE GRAVES

a yellowish tint to the palest colors. Today, paint manufacturers use titanium dioxide to create pure-white shades, but that technique came into commercial use only in the 1920s. Trim tended to be light in color, often the same or almost-same color as the siding. Dark colors, like black or dark green, were used for window sashes, doors, and shutters.

Interiors: Soft colors were all the rage, including peaches and brighter pastels in shades of green, yellow, and blue.

Paints: Rundlet Peach, Cottage Green, Jonquil, Emily

espite its Puritan underpinnings, New England’s first years were not colorless. Yes, the earliest homes often went without a coat of paint, but hidden in the dirt floors of those humble structures was a hint of colorful things to come: minerals that would form the basis of early pigments. And by the 1800s, synthetic dyes would open a peacock’s fan of bold choices for homeowners. Much has changed since then. Where the bodies of houses once used to be light, trimmed with dark, today the reverse is true. And yet we can’t seem to let go of the past. Every paint company worth its palette has a “historic” collection, attesting to our ongoing fascination with period color. We asked Sally Zimmerman, senior preservationservices manager at Historic New England and co-author of Painting Historic Exteriors, to take us on a colorful journey through time.

Note: In 2010, Historic New England partnered with Andover, Mass.–based California Paints to design the Historic Colors of America collection, with 149 authentic shades used from the 1600s to 1895. All paint names mentioned in this story refer to that collection.

1740–1780: First Period

Exteriors: Many early houses were left unpainted to weather the elements, Zimmerman says. If exterior color was used at all, it was often a simple yellow ochre and iron oxide (the “barn” red we know so well) mixed with white lead and linseed oil, and applied on site. Window sashes and trim were painted in lighter, contrasting colors. Sash windows (which slide up), though an improvement over earlier casement windows, had to be painted to protect glazing putty from the weather; otherwise the glass would fall out.

Interiors: Neutral “drabs.” The colors of doves and oysters were popular, as were Prussian blues.

Paints: Parsnip, Langdon Dove, Standish Blue, Meetinghouse Blue

1780–1840:

Federal/Greek Revival

Exteriors: With American independence, colors went lighter, with the most common shades being white and creamy white. However, these colors were quite different from today’s “bright” whites; the linseed oil used as a binder in early oil paints lent

1860s–1880s: Victorian

Exteriors: After the Civil War, synthetics were introduced to the nascent paint industry, opening up a wider range of pigments and greater saturation. Color was used to play up exterior architectural elements, such as columns, dentils, and cornices. Often three to five colors would be used on a single house; for example, chocolate-brown trim paired with golden-yellow siding and a brighter accent, such as turquoise, on a porch ceiling. (Today’s aesthetic often pairs lighter trim and sashes with a darker house color.)

Interiors: Rich, velvety clarets and deep, woodsy greens were fashionable novelties, while strong neutrals such as dark gold and warm brown balanced busy Victorian interiors.

Paints: Danish Pine, Portobello, Codman Claret, Picholine

According to Sally Zimmerman, the exterior color scheme of a house comprises three elements:

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MELISSA DIPALMA

In rebuilding their 1810 centerchimney Federal, Tammy and Doug Mackeown went to great lengths to bring the home back to its original condition. The work included replacing the fronthall railing and balusters, which vandals had ripped out.

Use your smartphone to scan for more house reconstruction photos.

Home Again

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KELLER + KELLER STYLING BY BETTE TROY

et’s go back to those early years. Before the big house came down, nail by nail, board by board, beam by beam. Before all those truckloads of old timber rumbled through the quiet center of Middletown, Connecticut. Before the tree clearing and the dirt moving. Before the curious onlookers came to see what all the fuss was about and then stayed to help out. Before family and friends poured time into the project, too. Certainly before the old home and barn went up again, looking just as straight and true as they had when they were originally built in 1810.

Let’s go back to that chilly December day in 1974 when Tammy and Doug Mackeown got their first look at what would become their new home. Yes, it needed a lot of work. And yes, the signs that it had sat vacant were clearly evident. But as the newlyweds stepped around the garbage, past the blown-out windows, the torn-apart staircase, and the beatup plaster walls, a charge ran through them. This can be done, they kept telling each other. We can do this.

And so they did. Over the next five years the young couple took down the old barn, then the center-chimney Federal house, and rebuilt both on a country road across town. There were mistakes and mishaps, and, of course, long days. Work began after work, and then churned through weekends and vacations. They’d return home late at night,

BY

collapse into bed, exhausted, muscles aching, but ready to do it all over again the next day.

“We were pretty determined,” Tammy says. “And young. And we really wanted to own an old house.”

This isn’t the first time that the Mackeowns’ house has appeared in Yankee . The Moseyer wrote about it for our “House for Sale” column in our December 1974 issue. It

When an old house spoke to Tammy and Doug Mackeown, they were willing to move heaven (almost) and earth to make it theirs.

IAN ALDRICH

INSET, TOP : The Mackeowns’ home in its original location in Middletown, Connecticut. ABOVE : The restored house as it stands today in its new spot.

was a curious property to feature. The boarded-up windows and vandalized interior made it more of a candidate for bulldozing than rebuilding. In fact, only a last-minute reprieve saved barn and home from becoming a training exercise for the local fire department.

But the bones of the buildings were sound: no sloping rooflines, still-sturdy support beams. Sure, a lot of good stuff was gone—part of that staircase, for example, the radiators, and all the copper piping—but many original details, such as the thumb latches on all the doors, remained. Even the Moseyer couldn’t help but gush a little.

“[The house] has an excellent fieldstone foundation and three fireplaces, one of which takes up an entire wall,” he wrote. “The barn has a few missing floorboards but, like the house, is in pretty darn good condition.” Both could be had, he added, “for a smile, a hearty handshake, and your signature.”

Well, not quite. The buildings sat on land owned by Northeast Utilities, which wanted the property for a new power plant. But in a last-ditch effort to save the structures, the Greater Middletown Preservation Trust took on their stewardship and proposed a unique real-

estate deal to potential buyers: House and barn were free, as long as the new owners would pay to dismantle them and restore both to their original condition in a new spot within the town.

The Mackeowns read that Yankee story. Then read it again. Both had grown up in old houses; Tammy on the Cape, Doug in Schenectady, New York. And both knew what could be involved in restoring them. Tammy’s father made his living dismantling and rebuilding old structures, while Doug had helped his mother rehab old barns before he attended the University of Vermont. While at the school, he helped convert an old farmhouse into a ski club and dormitory. But the couple, newly married and recently minted Connecticut residents, lacked one important thing: money.

“Old houses were starting to become expensive, and we just weren’t sure how we were going to be able to afford one,” says Tammy, who recently retired as the longtime food-services director for Aetna.

Some 40 people put their names in for the place, but the Mackeowns stood out. Their application included a three-ring binder, several inches thick,

OPPOSITE : The Mackeowns’ dining room, which features the work of one local carpenter, who meticulously rebuilt most of the home’s window sashes.

THIS PAGE , FROM LEFT : Tammy and Doug Mackeown in their front hall; the home’s original details include many of the doors; also original is its big center chimney, which the couple carefully took apart, numbering every brick to ensure that each one would go back into exactly the same spot.

outlining their plans for the property. There were blueprints that Doug’s mom, an architect, had put together; descriptions of the land to which they would relocate the buildings; and a breakdown of the home’s details (the trim work, the big center chimney) and how they planned to restore them.

The Trust awarded the Mackeowns the buildings in early 1975, and that April they began prying off the first roof boards from the barn and loading them onto a beat-up Ford 350 flatbed that Doug bought for $500. Back and forth that old truck went, over the Connecticut River, carrying doors and trim, siding and beams, floorboards and mantels. You couldn’t miss it, especially when the house’s main

carrying beam, all 40 feet of it, came through the heart of Middletown.

During those first couple of years, the couple lead dual lives. Rebuilding at one site, taking down at the other. “Vandals kept targeting the old property,” Doug recalls. “They’d knock the door down and we’d have to put it back up. That first Halloween I spent the whole night at the site because there were rumors that a bunch of kids were going to go through the house.”

By February 1978, the barn was finished and the home’s skeleton structure had been erected. Two years later, much of the rest of the heavy lifting—the insulation, electrical, and plumbing— was complete, letting the Mackeowns move into the still-unfinished house. They moved from room to room, putting down flooring, plastering the walls. On cold, raw days they made up for the lack of central heat by getting

the fireplaces roaring with the old lathe they’d pulled off the house.

In time, their project became a community home-raising of sorts, too. The local paper wrote about its progress, and the Mackeowns gave slide-show talks to local historical groups. At the job site one summer afternoon, a stranger rode up on a bike and offered to help; he became a mainstay for the next several years. Another dropped off a load of wood shingles; no note, no name. A local carpenter came out of retirement to build exact replicas of the original window sashes. A different builder made replacement trim boards, creating individual blades for the many molds.

Even their new neighbors embraced the project. On hot summer afternoons a woman down the street brought a tray of iced tea and cookies. A crew of locals helped place the home’s big beams.

A neighboring couple let Doug and Tammy tap into their water and electricity and never charged a cent; for years, Knowles Road had a hose and several long wires running across it.

Family and friends turned out, too. A buddy from New York did all the excavation. Tammy’s father installed the beams. Doug’s grandmother pulled nails from old windows and doors. Cousins, aunts, and uncles all put in time. There were work parties and euphoric shouts whenever they reached a major milestone. At times the whole endeavor felt more like a celebration than actual labor.

Five years went by like that. And then late in 1980, just when the house was about done, Doug’s company transferred him to Alaska. Tammy stayed behind for six months, plastering and painting, prettying the place for tenants before joining her husband.

Tammy examines a rughooking project in her second-floor craft room, home to sweeping views of the backyard; the herb garden and walkway, whose granite and bricks came from the home’s original site; blueprints drawn up by Doug’s mother, an architect; east side of the barn.

OPPOSITE : The home’s master bedroom.

Five years later, with a young son in tow and a daughter on the way, the Mac keowns moved back and moved into their finished home. “As much as we loved Alaska,” Tammy says, “we were just so happy to be home.”

Today, it takes a good eye for detail to know that the home’s property isn’t its original land. It sits on a country road populated by big maples and other historic homes, including a large centerchimney Federal directly across the street. So many of the details—the original clapboards, every brick from the big center chimney, the chestnut floorboards, those thumb latches, even the small upstairs bedrooms—have been preserved. “We put a lot of research and care into making sure things remained the same,” Tammy says. “We didn’t just go, ‘We can’t find dampers so we’ll make the fireplaces bigger.’”

But look a little more closely and there are subtle signs that this house has had a facelift: the modern wiring and central heat, the air conditioning, the tall basement ceilings, the insulated attic and walls. It’s the perfect blend: a house that looks old but doesn’t operate like it.

“We’ve had people who grew up here come back and they’re scratching their heads,” Doug says. “ ‘I don’t remember a house being here. I thought I knew this street.’ But the smarter ones look at the house and realize it’s too square, too plumb-looking, to have been here the whole time.”

Read the original “House for Sale” story at: YankeeMagazine.com/ Middletown-House

Use your smartphone to scan for barn reconstruction photos.

Tightening Up

This historic-homes expert knows that old houses don’t have to be cold.

BY IAN ALDRICH

o matter how much you love old houses, you’re never going to make your early Cape into a net-zero house. But it doesn’t have to be a total energy drain, either. Just ask Sally Zimmerman, senior manager of preservation services for Historic New England in Waltham, Massachusetts. At Historic New England, whose 36 properties include several 17thand 18-century homes, it’s her job to help make sure those buildings are viable 21st-century structures. “It’s possible to make these homes more efficient,” Zimmerman says. “That’s what will keep them going. They’ve evolved in the past, and they’ll evolve again.”

Cap It, Trap It

Because heat rises, a poorly insulated attic can account for significant lost dollars. Start by sealing the air leaks. If there’s old fiberglass insulation, peel it back. Is it dirty? That means that air and heat are escaping. Fill in the cracks with canned spray-foam insulation. Then fill the bays between the floor joists with dense-pack insulation. “It’s the best way to go,” Zimmerman advises. “You can really stuff those cavities, and it’s reversible should it get wet.” Just be sure that your electrician takes out any compromised or old (knob-and-tube) wiring first.

Lock ‘Em Down

It may sound like such an obvious thing to do, but Zimmerman says that many people simply don’t use the sash locks on their windows—and that can

result in a surprising amount of heat loss. “They actually have a role,” she notes. “They’re not just for preventing people from opening your windows when you’re away on vacation. They make the upper and lower sections a tight, single unit.” Zimmerman suggests going an extra step: Move the existing lock to one side of the window and add a second one to the opposite end to further button it up.

Go Inside

Making your old house more efficient and keeping those single-pane antique windows aren’t mutually exclusive options. In fact, the old windows are preferable. “New windows aren’t that effective, because old houses are often out of plumb and they won’t fit as well as old ones,” Zimmerman says. “And the wood in those new windows just isn’t as durable.” Instead,

weather-strip the originals, and then for added efficiency, install interior storms, which Historic New England has done at several of its properties. They can be just as much of a cost saver, maybe even better, than exterior ones, with the added benefit of preserving the home’s outside look.

Control Those Temps

“It’s human nature to forget to turn down the thermostat,” Zimmerman says, but a programmable thermostat can override DNA. A good one runs about $100 and keeps your house warm when you’re there and your heat running only intermittently when you’re not.

Wrap It, Save It

If your basement is comfortably warm, then heat is probably coming off your ducts and pipes. That’s heat that should be going into the home’s living areas. Reduce the loss, Zimmerman advises, by wrapping ducts in foil-back flexible insulation. Quarter-inch-thick rigid foam also works. And wrap pipes in foam sleeves. The savings, she says, will be noticeable: “The goal is to keep the heat in the part of the house where you live.”

PHOTOGRAPH BY HEATHER McGRATH

“We do a tremendous amount of research on each house.” — Brian Cooper

Meet

The Restorers

enovating an old home is a hero’s quest, a test of stamina and means. Whether you do it yourself or employ a battalion of workers, there’s no getting away cheap. And yet, in the realm of costly hobbies it stands apart as a noble pursuit, a labor of love.

Restoration contractors understand the love and the lure of historic preservation. The best ones expertly combine old and new, melding historic character and elements with modern usage. They know when to save and when to replace. They come armed with skills and mental Rolodexes of the best artisanal plasterers or master woodworkers (less romantically known as subcontractors, or “subs”) to hire for each job.

Here, we bring you four of the best contractors who have been working with old homes for decades, along with a guide

BY BRIDGET SAMBURG

to restoration specialists with expertise in floors, plumbing, period rugs, stained glass, plaster, and more. In this field, they’re artists, trusted with the architectural heritage that is a cornerstone of our identity as New Englanders.

Each of the men shown here brings a singular passion to their projects, everything from grand manses to humble condominiums. We asked each one to share a particular favorite with us and to offer his thoughts on what makes it special.

The 1700s Farmstead: Brian Cooper

Brian Cooper, ABOVE , of Early New England Restorations has been buying and dismantling old homes for years. He has trailers full of buildings waiting to be resurrected as additions or used for their antique components. His current assignment: a projected four-year-long effort to restore the Pendleton–Chapman House at Avondale Farm, built around 1740 in Avondale, Rhode Island. Multiple buildings—including one brought in from a site in Connecticut—are part of this historically unusual undertaking.

What’s the most unique piece of this restoration?

“We built a kiln to burn oyster shells for lime putty, which was once used to create mortar and plaster. We’ve used 3,500 pounds of oyster shells so far. The result is a historically accurate, beautiful, white lime putty. This is probably the first lime-kiln burn built in Rhode Island in the past 200 years. We’re also making all of the nails, all from repurposed wrought iron [LEFT].”

New England’s most talented old-home guardians.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEX GAGNE

OPPOSITE : The Pendleton–Chapman House in Avondale, Rhode Island, was built c. 1740 on the east side of the Pawcatuck River; the property was once a dairy farm.

What about this early-period home speaks to you?

“The owners are focused on the historical accuracy of the house, the quality of the craftsmanship, and the recycling of various materials. With these early, early homes—the 17th- and 18thcentury ones—you can see how hard life was back then. And everything

you had in your home was made by a person. Our group does a tremendous amount of research on each house to find out how that influenced their architectural decisions. Making a historically accurate antique house comfortable is a difficult task. We recycle old house parts, but we also add geothermal heating elements or radiant heat.”

Are you using antique tools for this project?

“Our carpenters have a mix of old and new, from 150-year-old chisels and mallets to the latest power tools. Our craftsmen value quality handwork. A lot of the preparation work is done with modern equipment (a chain mor tise machine and circular saws) for safety and efficiency. But the finish work integrates traditional methods with antique tools, such as slicks, chisels, mallets, and hand planes.”

Early New England Restorations, Stonington, CT. 860-599-4393; werestoreoldhomes.com

The Converted Barn: Ian Harper

New England barns are given second lives at Colonial Barn Restoration in Bolton, Massachusetts, where Ian Harper has spent the past decade saving barns that would otherwise be among the thousands lost each year. This particular project in Lincoln, Massachusetts, turned an underutilized 1800s structure into an addition, complete with family room, fireplace, guest room, and passage to the main house.

What was most interesting to you about this project?

“If you have an old barn on your property, the upkeep and maintenance can be a burden if you can’t get some use out of it. So updating is a good way to extract real value, since you don’t have to tear down the barn and build an addition. I love the blend of old and new in this Lincoln project—the dovetailing of history and antique aesthetic with modern function and design, all while maintaining the barn vernacular.”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP : This home addition in Lincoln, Mass., was once a 19th-century barn; a massive stone fireplace makes for a dramatic centerpiece along one wall; the barn’s historic aesthetic lives on in the room’s soaring space and post-and-beam construction.

“I love the blend of old and new in this project—the dovetailing of history and antique aesthetic with modern function and design.”

— Ian Harper

“We wanted to make it a home and maintain the aesthetic.”

— Charlie Allen

Do you have a particular way you approach these barn restorations?

“We survey the barn to determine what we can salvage. During demolition, we preserve a lot of material and look for places to reuse it later. In this particular barn, the majority of the original frame was intact—posts, beams, and roof structure as well. We used salvaged material for benches on either side of the fireplace and found additional wood from another barn to match.”

Colonial Barn Restoration, Bolton, MA. 978-779-9865; colonialbarn.com

The Starter Home: Charlie Allen

The triple-decker is a symbol of turnof-the-century urban New England architecture. Neither grand nor visually stunning, these homes typically survive as aluminum-clad eyesores planted in long rows down treeless city blocks. But they do have their charms. Charlie Allen, of Cambridgebased Charlie Allen Restorations, has worked extensively on large-scale preservation projects, but he has a special fondness for more modest homes. This particular triple-decker in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had been reconfigured into two living spaces. Allen was brought in to return the

property to its three-unit origins, creating a modern first-floor living space while retaining the house’s character.

What was special about this project?

“This was about a couple falling in love and coming together to create their first home together. So we wanted to add space and function. We wanted to make it a home and maintain the aesthetic. The baseboard, rosettes, doors, and moldings were all maintained.”

What about the kitchen? How to improve that room while maintaining antique charm?

“People love their old homes, but they don’t love their old homes’ kitchens. That isolated, low-ceilinged room in the back of the house is no longer acceptable. They want the kitchen integrated into the rest of the home. We were able to redo counters and paint cabinets to refresh it while staying within budget.”

Why bother keeping the old radiators?

“I love remodeling old houses because it can be very green. Old radiators work very well, and they look better than baseboard heaters. They can be sandblasted and painted; we can move them and resize them. And we can convert a steam system into a water system.”

What’s your philosophy when it comes to combining old and new?

“I’m not a purist. But what might be most satisfying for me is when people can’t tell whether some fixture or element is original or not, so that there’s a sense of symmetry. That’s how we keep these old houses functioning for families.”

Charlie Allen Renovations, Cambridge, MA. 617-661-7411; charlie-allen.com

ABOVE : Restoration contractor Charlie Allen. OPPOSITE : This classic Cambridge triple-decker has been updated for 21st-century living. BELOW : The polished look of the redone kitchen, filled with natural light, replaces an outdated style.

The Classic Cape: Richard Mecke

A 1970s remodeling job had left few hints that this modest 1750s Cape in Plympton, Massachusetts, was brimming with historically interesting architectural elements and character. Richard Mecke uncovered beautiful exposed frame ceilings, did extensive

work on the home’s three fireplaces, and restored original walls.

What was intriguing to you about this project?

“When I looked at this house, there was no real evidence of when it was built other than the location of the domed brick oven within the fireplace.

I could date it from that. And then I started to realize that it had other elements. The ceilings had been lowered, so we exposed the framing of the original kitchen. The framing used to be a decorative element, but after the 1730s the exposed framing wouldn’t have been fashionable. Yet this house still had that.”

Were there other surprises in store for you?

“We discovered that the beehive oven was still working; usually they’re not usable. One fireplace lintel was warped. We jacked up the chimney and redid all of the brickwork, repaired the lintel, and used actual lime mortar. Two other fireplaces had been filled in with modern bricks in 1970. We removed the new brickwork and exposed the wonderful, intact, original fireboxes.”

What about the walls of this home?

“We found a lot of evidence of featheredged wallboard [a technique where vertical boards are tapered on each side to the edge]. We reestablished the walls using what we found. And we used some of the remnants of the paneling to make a firewood box for the homeowner. It’s the handmade aspect of these projects that appeals to me.”

Historic Homes by Richard Mecke, Laconia, NH. 603-393-2932; rsmecke.com

See photos of Bridget Samburg’s home at: YankeeMagazine.com/House-Tour

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT : This sweet Cape in Plympton, Mass., dates from the mid-18th century; antique furnishings and restored original walls lend a gracious tone to the dining room; the kitchen’s architecture is a masterpiece of Colonial craftsmanship.

Bridget Samburg wrote about restoring her own home using mostly salvaged materials in Yankee ’s “Reclaiming the Soul of a House,” January/February 2013.

“It’s the handmade aspect of these projects that appeals to me.”

— Richard Mecke

THE SUBCONTRACTORS

WINDOWS

Alison Hardy says people are surprised to learn that she’s in the business of repairing antique windows, since most homeowners think old ones are better off being replaced. But Hardy says that old windows, once restored, are just as good as new ones and often look better. And not just in high-end homes: She’s worked on small cottages where an owner wanted to keep a single sweet, original window. Prices run $300 for window repair to $1,400 for a full restoration of all components.

Window Woman of New England, Amesbury, MA. 978-532-2070; window-woman-ne.com

PLUMBING

“People think that antique plumbing means just clawfoot tubs and pullchain toilets,” says Walter K. Parker. He points out that it also means faucets—lots of them—and pipes and showers and any sort of plumbing imaginable, all of which Parker says work better than modern plumbing. “Antique plumbing is so much more reliable,” he notes. Having amassed decades’ worth of fixtures and parts,

Parker says he never works with anything younger than 80 years old.

The Old School Plumber, Dudley, MA. 508-341-3331; oldplumbfixer.com

KITCHENS AND BATHROOMS

Joyce Jackson and Patrick Mealey, a husband-and-wife team, work with clients to design and create kitchens and bathrooms that complement a home’s period and architecture. Both working artists, the couple restores when possible and brings in salvage everything from double farmhouse sinks and refurbished antique stoves to vintage bin pulls—and reproduction finishes as needed. “People are surprised by what they can keep,” Jackson says. “The house has all the answers.”

Fineartistmade, Perry, ME. 207-853-9504; fineartistmade.com

NATURAL STONE

Restoration of any kind of natural stone is Paul Bunis’s specialty. Having worked on a variety of stone surfaces for years, Bunis was looking for more of a challenge and turned to restoration projects. Although some of Bunis’s

work brings him to the grandest homes around New England, much of it includes simple, small tile repair, cleaning, or regrouting. “We just love old stone,” he says.

Boston Stone Restoration, Foxborough, MA. 781-793-0700; bostonstonerestoration.com

LIGHTING

“There was a time when lighting was art,” says Mark Okun, vice president and general manager of Restoration Lighting Gallery. “We’re bringing history to life. And it takes artists and craftsmen to restore these pieces.” Okun says he enjoys being able to connect his clients with the past, sometimes restoring heirlooms with deep personal significance. Okun’s team repairs everything from small sconces to grand chandeliers. “It runs the gamut,” he says, but all the pieces have the added luster that only time can bring. “Plus, we like to keep things out of the landfill.”

Restoration Lighting Gallery, Hartford, CT. 860-493-2532; myrlg.com

When it comes to the nitty-gritty of salvaging windows or designing a period kitchen, these restoration specialists come recommended by top contractors and old-home aficionados.

IRONWORK

Except for an electric-fan blower, Vermont blacksmith Dennis Gibson’s tools and techniques are the same as they would have been 200 years ago. While he’s always forging new pieces, Gibson routinely restores hardware, kitchenware, railings, and grates.

Vermont Blacksmith, West Glover, VT. 802-525-3034; vermontblacksmith.com

ORNAMENTAL PLASTER

Centerpiece medallions and cornices are Rory Brennan’s specialty. And since age, water, prolonged high temperatures, or the impact of renovations will often damage these delicate elements, Brennan’s calendar is always full.

Preservation Plastering, Brattleboro, VT. 802-254-1330; preservationplastering.com

MILLWORK

As a millwork restorer, Daniel Pennington is often tasked with bringing staircases (newel posts are a specialty) or moldings back to their original glory. One advantage of working on old houses? He’ll occasionally find salvageable pieces in attics or hidden throughout the homes he’s working on. “If we can restore it, we’d prefer to,” Pennington says. “If we can convince people to restore, we do.”

Artisan Stairs & Millwork, Manchester, CT. 866-434-7040; artisanstairsandmillwork.com

MASONRY

As a restoration mason, Richard Irons collects bricks from as far back as the 1600s. Using original constituents for making mortar (clay from a nearby river, for example), Irons matches materials whenever possible. He has restored bake ovens, fireplaces, and hearths in everything from First Period saltboxes to grand Federal homes all over New England.

Richard Irons Restoration Masons, Limerick, ME. 207-632-2806; restorationmasons.com

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COLOR AND WOOD STAINING

Entirely self-taught, Wayne Towle spent countless hours in libraries researching wood staining and finishing when he got into restoration work. “We’re the hairdressers of the wood industry,” he says. “We do tinting and the color behind the color.” Towle, who has now been in business for 35 years, mixes all his own colors to create both traditional and modern looks. Refinishing old woodwork and finishing new woodwork are his specialties. His skills are so sought after that he’s called in on many contemporary projects as well.

Wayne Towle, Needham, MA. 781-449-1313; waynetowle.com

WALLPAPER & RUGS

Although John Burrows does some rug repair and has amassed dozens of original pieces of wallpaper, he primarily works in reproductions (antique rugs and wallpaper are of course quite rare). Burrows helps clients match or re-create materials that are period-appropriate, making sure that rugs have the correct weaves and wallpapers boast authentic colors. With a background as an architectural historian, he’s meticulous about detail.

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J. R. Burrows & Company, Rockland, MA. 781-982-1812; burrows.com

STAINED GLASS

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If you have original stained glass in your house, be warned: It’s a (very pretty) time bomb. After 75 to 100 years, windows naturally buckle as the grout and glue crumble and the glass begins to chip or fall out. Stained-glass restorer Lawrence Ribbecke repairs everything from single panes to entire windows. He

has become a master at deciphering age and works to seamlessly incorporate new glass whenever necessary; with his help, these beautiful windows will last into another century. “I enjoy making things live again,” Ribbecke says.

Lawrence Ribbecke Studios, Burlington, VT. 802-658-3425; ribbeckeglass.com

ROOFING

With 40 years of experience behind him, Keith Deal specializes in restoring slate and copper roofs, which means that most of his projects date back to at least the early 1900s. His work typically involves spot repair rather than full restoration, since a good slate job can last 200 years. But he doesn’t recommend putting slate on just any house. The materials weigh four times as much as modern asphalt shingles—a load that old houses were designed to bear. But for those looking for period accuracy and lasting quality, slate is worth the hefty price tag.

Apollo Roofing & Sheet Metal, Providence, RI. 401-274-6630; apolloroofingri.com

FLOORS

For 25 years Mason Wattles has been an expert at breathing new life into old floors, those often underappreciated workhorses of many an antique home. Wattles brings luster, warmth, and aethetic appeal to old wood, repairing damaged floorboards and matching existing grains and tones with salvaged and reclaimed pieces as needed.

Heritage Hardwood Flooring, Lebanon, ME. 207-698-7197; heritagehardwoodflooring.net

Models on Display

Printmaker Matt Brown in his studio in Lyme, New Hampshire.

THIS PAGE , RIGHT, FROM TOP : Brown carves a block for his Kearsarge from Eagle Pond ; baby-food jars hold pigments; blocks and colors for Above Edmands Col

OPPOSITE : Along Franconia Ridge, a 7x16-inch woodblock print.

To learn more about Matt Brown and his art, use your smartphone to scan for a video.

Matt Brown

East meets West in a New Hampshire printmaker’s studio.

BY CHRISTIE MATHESON

BY MATT KALINOWSKI

att Brown’s New England landscape prints are alternately intimate and sweeping, vibrant and softly moody. But all capture moments of beauty witnessed with affectionate eyes. The settings are familiar, but the method is Japanese, a centuries-old woodblock technique called moku hanga , in which images are built layer upon layer, one hand-carved block per color. Brown mixes his colors from water, rice paste, and pigment and presses the paper to the block with a flat handheld tool called a baren . A self-taught printmaker, he discovered moku hanga at an exhibit of Japanese prints at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College and has been making prints since 1993.

Made in New Hampshire

The son of a Dartmouth history professor, Brown moved to New Hampshire at the age of 2. He graduated as an art major from Harvard, but “came right back up here” after graduation. “I have so many personal connections to the area, and it’s a beautiful place,” he says. “I think life is richer when you steer toward connections and coincidences.” After some time in the building trades, he turned to art.

Inspirations

Brown’s first images depicted the life of his young family, but landscape soon supplanted this imagery. “The seasons and topography of northern New England are so complex,” he says, “with great variety: rocky woods, river bottoms,

fields, the coast. Lately I’ve been looking a lot at water—coastal Maine, Lake Winnipesaukee. Water is an endless source of challenge.” He’s also contemplating some well-known New England mountains: Monadnock, Kearsarge. “When I make a print, I’m looking for stories, shapes, and colors that line up and affect each other,” he says. “I like revisiting old themes.”

Workspace

Brown lives in an 1871 house just up the road from his 1814 childhood home in Lyme. His studio isn’t far away. “I have about a 200-foot commute,” he

says. His property includes the house, a barn, and a workshop he built in 1987. (“You wouldn’t know it’s not an older building,” he says of the shop, which resembles a schoolhouse and where he sometimes teaches classes.) The main floor is a woodshop; he makes prints on the light-filled top floor, with views of the surrounding maple trees. “It’s nice to be working on issues of picture making with so much of the natural world right outside the window,” he says.

Workday

“Early morning is my most creative time,” Brown explains. He does most of his drawing and painting when he’s on site in Lyme. Later in the day he works on printing or on framing and shipping. Other days he’s out exploring New England, taking inspiration from nature. For a new set of Mount Monadnock images, he climbed the peak once at sunset and again the next day at sunrise. “I brought simple colors with me and came home with a combination of sketches and photos,” he says. “Then the real drawing happened at home on my easel.”

MATT BROWN WOODBLOCK PRINTS

23 Washburn Hill Road, Lyme, NH. 603-795-4619;

hangaprints.com

PHOTOGRAPHS

“Life is richer when you steer toward connections.”

OPPOSITE

OPPOSITE

(c.

Kingston, New Hampshire, house in 1774. The current owner is the seventh generation of Bartletts to live here. THIS PAGE , FROM TOP : After Dr. Bartlett signed the Declaration of Independence, he home to the Granite State with this European linden tree, then a mere sapling; the parlor displays Bartlett family memorabilia.

New

The current owner is the seventh generation of Bartletts to live here. THIS PAGE , FROM TOP : After Dr. Bartlett signed the Declaration of Independence, he headed home to the Granite State with this European linden tree, then a mere sapling; the parlor displays Bartlett family memorabilia.

: Oil portrait by Alonzo Slafter (c. 1840, copied from an original by John Trumbull) of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, who built this Kingston,

Hampshire, house in 1774.

: Oil portrait by Alonzo Slafter

1840, copied from an original by John Trumbull) of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, who built this

The 241-Year-Old Colonial That’s Never Been Sold

But this year the seventh generation of the family that has always owned this Kingston, New Hampshire, property—one as historically important as, say, the Granite State homes of Daniel Webster, Franklin Pierce, and Robert Frost—has decided, reluctantly, to put it on the market ...

BY THE YANKEE MOSEYER

e were met at the elegant front door by the current owner, Ruth Albert, who also happens to be the great-great-great-great- (four greats!) -granddaughter of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, who built the house in 1774, two years before he signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. His signature is the second one—right after John Hancock’s. And Ruth Albert, representing the seventh generation of the Josiah Bartlett family, has lived here in this house almost all her life, the more recent years with her husband, Dale (who was on his construction job the day of our visit). For 241 years, the property has never been out of her family.

Ruth instantly made us feel welcome as she led us through a parlor, where her ancestors’ weddings and funerals were once held, to what was once the kitchen, now the dining room. (The newer kitchen is at the back of the house.) There we visited for a while in front of a lovely old fireplace, surrounded by various antiques, paintings, and bric-a-brac from past years. We were immediately aware of how much Ruth loves every square inch of her family homestead. “It’s amazing,” she said at one point, “to be doing the same activities each day in the same rooms where generations of my family did before me. They sat in the same chairs we’re sitting in now and lit a fire in that fireplace after coming down those stairs every morning.”

She paused, then continued: “Now, for me, it feels very safe to live in this house. It provides me with a tremendous sense of belonging.” She told us that her grandmother was born “in that room over there” and that she would guess that probably the children of all the generations of Bartletts were born here.

Does she know the names of any people in each of those generations? “Sure,” she replied. “After Josiah there were three Levis—two of whom, like Josiah, became doctors—followed by two Gertrudes (my grandmother and my mother), and then, of course, me.”

Yankee likes to mosey around and see, out of editorial curiosity, what you can turn up when you go house hunting. We have no stake in the sale whatsoever and would decline it if offered.

Yes, of course, she and Dale were very much hoping to pass along the property to a family member. Although Ruth has no children of her own, she contacted her many cousins, second cousins, and even their children, scattered about the country, in hopes that someone would agree to become the eighth generation of the family to take ownership. But, alas, although all expressed love for the place—many even attending dinner last Thanksgiving with Ruth and Dale—no one could see his or her way clear to relocate to Kingston. Thus it became obvious to Ruth and Dale that it was time to downsize. Sad, but for many of us, that’s the reality.

The price for the house (not including contents), the barn, and 7.9 acres of open fields behind the house (the front faces the town green): $599,900. For an additional 10 acres, including 1,200 feet of water frontage on nearby Greenwood Pond, a good-sized body of water about a five-minute walk from the house: $849,900. (Ruth and Dale plan to save out three acres and eventually

build themselves a small lakeside home there.)

We’d like to mention here that anyone thinking of acquiring this property should contact the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance (call Jennifer Goodman at 603-224-2281); maybe some sort of historical easement could be pursued. After all, it’s one of only 23 National Historic Landmarks in New Hampshire and is certainly as historically important as, say, the New Hampshire homes of Daniel Webster, Franklin Pierce, and Robert Frost. (Restrictions would apply only to the home’s exterior; the interior may be altered.)

Well, eventually Ruth walked us through all 10 rooms, including five bedrooms upstairs, two bathrooms, and, at the far end of the second floor, the original outhouse with its fabulous old tin bathtub. (We’d never seen an out-

house in a house before.) We also examined Dr. Josiah Bartlett’s medical instruments, displayed on an antique table in the parlor. Among many odd “medical” tools there was a sword-like curved knife and even a hacksaw used for amputations (yikes). Tiny medicine vials still contain some pills, now partially disintegrated, that Dr. Bartlett would have taken with him as he made his extensive house calls on horseback. His original desk and chair are nearby, too.

On our way outside, Ruth posed for a photo next to the biggest European linden tree we’ve ever seen. Its massive branches spread out in all directions right in front of the house. Ruth told us that after Bartlett signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, he headed home with this tree, then just a sapling, and planted it here, where it blooms every year. Exactly when does it bloom? Well, on or around every Fourth of July. Of course!

For details, contact Donna Carter of Donna Carter Real Estate, 98 Amesbury Road, Kensington, NH 03833. 603-770-0516; homefinder.com/agent/ Donna-Carter-2752408d

Read classic HFS stories from our archives at: YankeeMagazine.com/ house-for-sale

ABOVE : The home’s original indoor “outhouse” features the old tin tub at right, in which generations of Bartletts once bathed. BELOW : Current owner Ruth Albert has lived in her ancestral home most of her life; here she poses with the portrait of Dr. Bartlett.

Could You Live Here? |

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP : The madcap magic of Double Edge Theatre infuses The Grand Parade (of the 20th Century) ; fields and farmland still surround this rural enclave, 20 miles from bustling Northampton (shown here, Steady Lane Farm); for pizza aficionados, Country Pie is a prime destination; equal parts café/ craft emporium/town crier, Elmer’s Store is the village hub.

ASHFIELD

BY ANNIE GRAVES

ome small New England towns, like Ashfield (population approximately 1,750), in western Massachusetts, remind me of oldfashioned porches—long-ago places where you sat and greeted neighbors, building community as surely as moss grows.

Ashfield rests in the foothills of the eastern Berkshires, the tip of its big toe, and you reach this hill town by a winding road that spirals ever upward. Downtown proper spreads out with broad fields at its back. Fields and pastures embrace the village, and all kinds of interesting stuff is tucked into the farmrich hills. Artsy stuff. Farm-fresh stuff. Sometimes mixed together. Half the fun is stumbling over the unexpected.

The local compass for what’s happening is Elmer’s Store on Main Street. Owner Nan Parati was visiting a friend in Ashfield when Hurricane Katrina demolished her home in New Orleans in 2005. She bought the historic little building (trimmed with porches), built in 1835 as a general store. Then she surveyed the townsfolk to find out what they really wanted.

The answer—a decade later—can’t be neatly summarized. Famously crunchy-soft pancakes that deflect and absorb Gray’s Sugarhouse maple syrup (it’s Gray’s secret pancake recipe, too). Local burgers, Friday-night dinners, a humorous menu, live music. It’s also part gift-and-grocery emporium,

A tightly knit community of artists and artisans gives a pretty hill town a creative energy like few others.

ASHFIELD

MARIA BARANOVA (DOUBLE EDGE THEATRE); JULIE BIDWELL (FARM, COUNTRY PIE PIZZA, ELMER’S)

with a cross-section of the artisanal (hardwood mason-jar lids). All this makes it a flat-out good place in which to hibernate on a rainy afternoon with a laptop, or to take a yoga class with Blake Macko, the guy who probably flipped your pancakes this morning (tables are moved back). From time to time, Nan hosts panel discussions here, like “Happily Ever After,” where four local couples discussed the secrets of successful relationships.

“We (including I) thought it might be poignant, warm, heartwarming, sweet, and dear,” Nan writes in the Ashfield News , an all-volunteer newspaper published monthly. “Instead, it was freaking hilarious. And all of those other things as well.”

Everyone seems intertwined, like vines on a trellis. At one point, several young people cluster together in Elmer’s—members of Double Edge Theatre (more on them later). This “Arabian Nights” company moved into a 105-acre former dairy farm in 1994. “It does a lot for the area,” says Michael Hulburt, 30, a sharply funny man with a wayward beard who manages the kitchen at Elmer’s. Also an accomplished banjo/guitar/trombone/ glockenspiel player, he’s collaborating with another musician at Double Edge on a future project.

Meanwhile, there’s a weird golden baby doll near Elmer’s checkout, crying for an explanation. It turns out that “Baby Cecil” is named for legendary director Cecil B. DeMille, born in Ashfield. So naturally, Ashfield has a film festival every September. As befits the village size, films are five minutes long, but the eight-year-old event feels professional; one of the organizers is Harry Karamides, who worked on Back to the Future

Michael plunks a book onto my table. It’s The 52 Weeks Project, a graphic novel by best-selling New York Times

artist Greg Ruth, who lives nearby. “Ashfield’s the coolest town,” he says. “I was in talking to Martha [the librarian], and I was saying the same thing … Why would you ever want to leave?”

The Setting

The South River corkscrews alongside Route 116 North, and fields spread out where the land levels off. A tilting sign announces: Ashfield Plain Historic District 1765. From certain angles it’s possible to capture all three town spires in a single photo: Episcopal Church, First Congregational, and Town Hall, with its exotic bulb on top. The residentsonly beach at Ashfield Lake is near the village center, and in early spring oldfashioned sap buckets line the roads branching off from town like veins in a leaf. Busy Northampton is just 20 miles south. Here, though, there’s just lots of wide space wrapping around a small town.

ABOVE : Owners Laura Bessette (left) and Nancy Hoff (right) stock the Ashfield Hardware & Supply porch with pots, plants, and garden goods. BELOW : Beautiful Ashfield Lake keeps residents cool.

Social Scene

Elmer’s, Elmer’s, Elmer’s. Take a yoga class or sign up for crafts night with Megan, who just served your meal. Sit in on one of Nan’s panel discussions, or come for a night of live music. Or pick up the Ashfield News to see what else is happening—possibly a “Scrabble Tourney” at First Congregational Church. Double Edge Theatre holds public workshops, too, like the recent one-day “Open Training.” Twenty participants came together from near and far—Nova Scotia, South Africa, Los Angeles, Bulgaria, and, yes, Ashfield—to taste the Double Edge experience. “I always wanted to know what went on here,” says Fern, a local resident who moved to town the same year Double Edge did. “I came because I love strange and creative people.”

Shopping

An artful and colorful hodgepodge of bright metal garden tools, bamboo rakes, wooden baskets, and plants spill off the porch at Ashfield Hardware & Supply (they get porches here). Farmto-table shoppers have the Ashfield Farmers’ Market, Saturdays from May to October on the town common, and a cornucopia of local farms for fresh yogurt, cheese, and meat.

Eating Out

Elmer’s is open for breakfast and lunch most days of the week, with dinner on Fridays. Next to the hardware store, Country Pie makes fresh pizza and homemade soups, and the Ashfield Lake House serves casual food by the water. If you simply must have your Italo-Thai-Mexican fix, Northampton bristles with options.

Real Estate

Welcome to the land of small farms. Wanda Mooney at Coldwell Banker Upton–Massamont Realtors, says that what sets Ashfield apart from other hill towns are its lake, tennis court, two golf courses, farmers’ market, and a “spectacular” fall festival. Homes

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start at $100,000; at the time of this writing, a two-bedroom 1940 cottage overlooking Ashfield Lake sold for $125,000, while an in-town farmhouse on Main Street with four bedrooms sold for $192,000. Fancy a small farm? Just over a mile from Main Street, an 1857 three-acre “farmette” sold for $220,000. “Ashfield is considered one of the most desirable towns in Franklin County,” Wanda notes, and the market is steady, with prices unchanged for the past three years.

Resident Perk: Backyard Theatre

As dusk creeps over the barns and outbuildings at Double Edge Theatre, mystical figures swirl out of the gloom. It’s the “Summer Spectacle” in July and August, and the old farm landscape is strewn with remnants of earlier shows, like The Odyssey , alive with flying creatures and spinning genies. The Boston Globe wrote of Double Edge performances, “Five senses hardly seem enough.”

Founder and artistic director Stacy Klein began her wild laboratorytheatre experiment in 1982 at Tufts University. Twelve years later, Double Edge left the city and bought a declining farm here and continued develop-

ing intense, groundbreaking projects that played around the U.S. and abroad. These physically demanding, nonspeaking performances are surreal and powerful—Bread and Puppet meets Cirque du Soleil.

Back then, the theatre wasn’t so tightly woven into the Ashfield community. “We were here to rehearse and make work,” Stacy recalls. “There were no public performances. Then we started lending land out to farmers, doing our spectacles. They could see our work ethic, and we began having an

BELOW : For more than 100 years,

economic impact.” She pauses. “It takes time to become part of a community.”

Now, as Double Edge celebrates 20 years in Ashfield, the ties between town and theatre seem deep and inextricable. A sheep farm has donated wool for props; stonemasons and landscapers pitch in; a local baker donates unsold bread. These Ashfield hills are alive and glowing with ghosts of farms past and brilliant theatre to come.

Getting Your Bearings

The Inn at Norton Hill is owned by Elmer’s (innatnortonhill.com ). Nearby, Wellspring House offers a peaceful writer’s retreat (wellspringhouse.net).

More on dining and lodging, activities and attractions, events, and community services at: franklincc.org and ashfield .org. More photos at: YankeeMagazine .com/Ashfield

ABOVE : From May to October local growers like Daniel Greene and Melody Holtz supply the Ashfield Farmers’ Market on the common.

Belding Memorial Library has been a prominent fixture on Main Street.

Calendar of EVENTS

CONNECTICUT

MAR. 1: CHESHIRE, Model Train Show. More than 70 dealers will turn Cheshire High School into a railroad wonderland. Chock full of anything and everything train-related, plus movies, clinics, workshops, and good food as well. 203-265-7527

MAR. 14: ESSEX, Privateers’ Bash. Break out the eye patches and peg legs for this swashbuckling fundraising party at Connecticut River Museum. Live music and great raffle prizes, along with drinks and good grub. Tickets go fast, so reserve yours early. 860-767-8269; ctrivermuseum.org

MAR. 14: HARTFORD, St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Rain or shine, the 44th annual parade will start on Capitol Avenue and proceed through Main, Asylum, and Ford Streets en route to its terminus at the Memorial Arch. Stake out seats along the parade route early for an up-close view of the festivities. irishamerican parade.com

MAR. 14–15: GUILFORD, Antiques Show. This massive annual event, with more than 50 booths taking over Elisabeth Adams School, benefits the Hyland House Museum. There isn’t much you won’t find here, from art to jewelry, books to furniture, quilts to decoys. While you’re there, enjoy lunch at the show’s café. 914-474-8552; barnstar.com

MAR. 14–15: HEBRON, Maple Festival. A townwide family event featuring a feast of maple treats and other goodies, plus activities, raffles, woodworking and blacksmithing demonstrations, a craft fair, sugarhouse tours, and plenty of maple items to purchase and take home. hebronmaplefest.com

MAR. 15–APR. 26: STONY CREEK, Seal Watch Tours. See the seals in Long Island Sound with Sea Mist Thimble Island Tours. Cruises leave every Saturday and Sunday for walk-ons. Weekdays are available for groups of 20 or more. 203-488-8905; thimbleislandcruise.com

WELL WORTH THE DRIVE

MARCH 15

St. Patrick’s Day Parade

New Haven, Connecticut

The sixth-oldest parade in the U.S., this festive and historic three-hour procession is billed as the largest single-day spectator event in Connecticut. The 1.5-mile route starts at Derby Avenue and Chapel Street. stpatricksdayparade.org

MAR. 20–22: NEW LONDON, Southeastern Connecticut Home Show. Now in its 34th year, join 125 local, state, and national exhibitors for innovative and imaginative displays, and information for home, condo, or apartment decorating and remodeling. Bring nonperishable food items for the show’s United Way food drive for a $1 discount on admission. Held at the Dayton Arena & Athletic Center at Connecticut College. 860-5632111; osbornejenks.com

MAR. 21–22: HARTFORD, Spring Antiques Show. This venerable event hosted by the Haddam Historical Society has become a showcase for pre-1840s American furniture and decorative arts. Meet the 60-plus exhibitors displaying fantastic finds within the light-filled expanse of the Hartford Armory. 860-345-2400; ctspringantiquesshow.com, haddamhistory.org

MAR. 22: MYSTIC, Irish Parade. Celebrate the area’s Celtic heritage with a procession of floats and more than 25 marching bands. The parade, now in its 12th year, steps off from Mystic Seaport’s South Lot and heads into the historic downtown for its “marquis” performance. mysticirishparade.org

APR. 10–JUNE 20: EAST HADDAM, “Guys & Dolls.” The colorful characters of Damon Runyan’s New York make their first appearance on the Goodspeed Opera stage. This Tony-winning musical comedy features a collection of familiar favorite songs, including “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat,” “A Bushel and a Peck,” and “Luck Be a Lady.” 860-873-8668; goodspeed.org

APR. 11: WETHERSFIELD, 10th Annual Taste of Wethersfield. Secure tickets in advance for this fashionable fundraiser for the Wethersfield

Historical Society, held at Keeney Memorial Cultural Center. Featuring excellent food and drinks, mixed with community spirit and merriment, plus live entertainment and a silent auction. 860-529-7656; wethhist.org

APR. 11–12: WATERBURY, Connecticut Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale. The Society hosts its 32nd annual show at Naugatuck Valley Community College, featuring a series of free lectures, plant auctions and sales, and refreshments. The first 50 families each day get a free plant. 860-489-8356; ctcactusclub.com

APR. 12: NEWTOWN, Dorian Wind Quintet with Spencer Myer. The first wind quintet to appear at Carnegie Hall, the Dorian has performed around the world. Myer, a gold medalist of the New Orleans International Piano Competition, joins them for this performance. 203-426-6470; newtownfriendsofmusic.org

APR. 25: VERNON/ROCKVILLE, Sheep, Wool & Fiber Festival. At the Tolland Agricultural Center, more than 60 vendors offer shearing demonstrations, fleece sales, lectures, knitting instruction, and sheepdog trials, plus tasty foods, music, and more, continuing a tradition now in its second century. ctsheep.org

APR. 25–26: MERIDEN, Annual Daffodil Festival. More than 600,000 daffodils have sprung up within 1,800-acre Hubbard Park, and it’s a sight for winter-weary eyes. Simply stroll through the park, or enjoy the parade, fireworks, craft fair, carnival rides, great foods from local vendors, and more. 203630-4259; daffodilfest.com

APR. 26: NEW HAVEN, Cherry Blossom Festival. Enjoy the sight and fragrance of the 72 Yoshino Japanese cherry trees in all their

WELL WORTH THE DRIVE

MARCH 24–APRIL 12 Red

Portland, Maine

A visually stunning drama in which abstract painter Mark Rothko squares off against his young assistant in a battle over art and its role in our lives. Juxtaposing the series of commissioned paintings Rothko is creating with discussions of politics, idealism, and tragedy, this Tony Award–winning play exposes the artist’s process in all its power and intimacy. 207-774-0465; portlandstage.org

spring glory around historic Wooster Square. The city celebrates with a variety of live musical performances throughout the afternoon, plus exhibits and demonstrations, creative children’s ctivities, a variety of fine foods, and more. 203-777-1371; historic woostersquare.org

APR. 30–MAY 2: STAMFORD, Northeast PEZ Collectors Gathering. This independent celebration of PEZ candy and its signature dispensers has been going strong for 17 years. PEZ games, PEZ auctions, PEZ exhibits, PEZ swaps, and pretty much PEZ everything. Punctuate your visit with a stop at the

WELL WORTH THE DRIVE

APRIL 11–MAY 3

Behindthe-Scenes

Farm Tour

Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Climb aboard a hay wagon for an hourlong jaunt around Hancock Shaker

Village’s expansive campus, accompanied by facilities and farm director Billy Mangiardi and gardener Georgia Barberi, who deliver great stories and engaging narration. The ride winds past herb and vegetable gardens, pastureland, apple orchards, and beehives, where you get to sample the honey straight from the comb. A stop at the Village’s composting station and greenhouse highlights the museum’s commitment to sustainability. Saving the best for last, you also get to nuzzle the baby animals—lambs, piglets, chicks, calves, kids, and more—and visit the grownups, too, in the barn complex. Advance registration required. 413-443-0188; hancockshakervillage.org

PEZ Visitors’ Center in nearby Orange. 843868-1739; pezgathering.com

MAINE

MAR. 7: BATH, The Fogcutters with Lyle Divinsky. Chocolate Church Arts Center hosts the 2014 New England Music Awards winner for Best Jazz Act. Combining big-band swing with funk, rock, and hip-hop influences, The Fogcutters are a Maine original, with a sound all their own. 207-442-8455; chocolatechurch .com, thefogcutters.com

MAR. 12–17: BATH, Blarney Days. The City of Ships hosts the state’s largest celebration of the Irish with nightly film or music events, a 5K Shamrock Sprint, a parade, a soda-bread bake-off, games, contests, and more. 207442-7291; visitbath.com

MAR. 21: BRIDGTON, Spring Fling. Now in its 31st year, this spring tradition features music, entertainment, the Slush Cup pondskimming competition, and plenty of time for lounging on the Blizzard’s Pub party deck. 207-647-8444; shawneepeak.com

MAR. 21–22: LEWISTON, Maine Home Show. See the latest products and meet local builders and contractors at Androscoggin Bank Colisée. Check out more than 100 booths of home-related products and services, from lawn-care equipment to landscape design, windows and doors to kitchens and baths, plus insulation and weatherization and more. mainehomeshow.com

MAR. 22: NEWRY, Eat the Heat Chili Cookoff & Firefighters’ Race. Watch firefighters race down the slopes in teams of five in full gear and carrying a fire hose to raise money for Maine Adaptive Sports & Recreation at Sunday River. Plus, sample chili from the best cooks in the state as they vie for the “Best Chili” award. Vote for your favorite. sunday river.com

MAR. 22: STATEWIDE, Maine Maple Sunday. Sugarhouses across the state open their doors, offering syrup samples and demonstrations. Many farms offer games, activities, treats, tours, music, and more, so check the Website map to find a sugarhouse or two near you. mainemapleproducers.com

MAR. 25–29: CARRABASSET VALLEY, Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships. Watch the country’s best skiers, including Bode Miller and Mikaela Shiffrin, compete for glory on Sugarloaf’s fabled Narrow Gauge Trail. Numerous viewing areas for spectators, plus an opening ceremony celebration and autograph sessions. 207-237-2000; sugarloaf.com

MAR. 28: RANGELEY, Pond Skimming. It’s man versus pond as Saddleback presents its 13th annual competition for skiers and snowboarders —a sure sign of the impending snow melt. 207-864-5671; saddlebackmaine.com

APR. 11–12: BANGOR, Garden Show. Once a year, Cross Insurance Center is transformed into a gardener’s dream. This year’s theme: “Naturally Nautical.” Meet vendors selling all things gardening, see demonstrations, and more. 207-947-5555; bangorgardenshow.com

APR. 18: PENOBSCOT COUNTY, Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race. The 49th running of the largest paddling event in New England follows a 16.5-mile course from Kenduskeag to downtown Bangor. If you’re attending as a spectator, brave the crowds near the rapids of Six Mile Falls for some “thrill of victory and agony of defeat” moments. kenduskeagstream canoerace.com

APR 18–20: OGUNQUIT, Patriots’ Day Celebration. Historical reenactments, a fifeand-drum concert, a patriotic pooch parade, treasure hunt, pie contest, book sale, hayrides, and fun activities to suit all ages at downtown locations. 207-646-2939; visitogunquit.org

APR. 25–27: BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Fisherman’s Festival. This community-wide event celebrates the local maritime industry. With activities including the crowning of Miss Shrimp, lobster-hauling competitions, and fishing-inspired races, there’s plenty of fun to go around. chamber.boothbayharbor.com

MASSACHUSETTS

MAR. 6–7: BOSTON, Harpoon St. Patrick’s Festival. No need to be Irish to enjoy the festivities and freshly brewed craft beer at this St. Paddy’s celebration, held under heated tents at Harpoon Brewery. Live Celtic music and traditional Irish fare. 617-574-9551; harpoonbrewery.com

MAR. 6, 8: BOSTON, Mendelssohn’s “Elijah.” The Handel & Haydn Society premiered Elijah in Boston in 1848, the year after the composer’s death. Still perhaps the most dramatic work of its kind, this epic is as inspirational today as it was 167 years ago. Grant Llewellyn conducts at Symphony Hall. 617-266-3605; handeland haydn.org

MAR. 7: YARMOUTH, Cape Cod St. Patrick’s Parade. The Cape’s largest Irish celebration has become a much-anticipated event. Starts at 11:00 a.m. on Long Pond Drive, continuing two miles along Route 28. 508-362-7239; capecodstpatsparade.com

MAR. 7–8, 14–15, 21–22, 28–29: STURBRIDGE, Maple Days. The sweet season is back again— enjoy sugaring demonstrations and learn how the task would have been done in the 19th century at Old Sturbridge Village. 508-3470323; osv.org

MAR. 8: WORCESTER, St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The city proudly celebrates its Irish American heritage in style, with a communityorganized parade that begins at Mill Street

and continues down Park Avenue to Highland Street. stpatsparade.com

MAR. 11–15: BOSTON, Flower & Garden Show. Expert advice, retail vendors, floral competitions, and more than 20 professionally designed gardens on display, all at the Seaport World Trade Center. 781-237-5533; boston flowershow.com

MAR. 12–16: BOSTON, Art in Bloom. The Museum of Fine Arts invites you to celebrate spring at this annual festival combining the beauty of fresh flowers and fine art. See the galleries transformed by nearly 70 extraordinary arrangements, each inspired by a magnificent work of art. Special programs and demonstrations throughout the weekend as well. 617-267-9300; mfa.org

MAR. 14–15: STURBRIDGE, Celtic Celebration. Salute St. Paddy’s Day while enjoying the historic and beautiful grounds of Old Sturbridge Village. There’ll be fine Irish food, music, dancing, and stories. 508-347-0323; osv.org

MAR. 21: GREAT BARRINGTON, Sergei Rachmaninoff & Russian Orientalia. At Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, the mesmeric Russian pianist Vassily Primakov joins Yehuda Hanani in a program that explores Middle Eastern and East Asian influences on the composer’s work. 800-843-0778; cewm.org

MAR. 21: WATERTOWN, Revels’ Spring Sing. A joyful family celebration of the vernal equinox at Grace Vision Church, with plenty of community singing, refreshments, and entertainment by participants in the spring children’s workshop. 617-972-8300; revels.org

MAR. 22: HOLYOKE, St. Patrick’s Road Race & Parade. Run the 10K road race, then take in the historic parade, complete with brightly decorated floats, the beat of snare drums, the masses of marchers, and the pride of the Irish. holyokestpatricksparade.com

MAR. 28–29: DUXBURY, 34th Annual Antique Show. More than 50 quality vendors will gather at the high school, offering a variety of fine vintage items to peruse. After building your hunger by shopping, visit the bake sale and lunch café. Proceeds benefit school athletic programs. 781-910-8141; duxbury boosters.org

APR. 13: BOSTON, Red Sox Home Opener. The sizzle of sausage and onions, the bustle of fans, the anticipation in the air … It all begins anew along Yawkey Way. Join in the excitement as the Sox kick off their Fenway schedule against the Washington Nationals. boston .redsox.mlb.com

APR. 17: WILLIAMSTOWN, Wallace Roney Quintet. This free concert is part of the Williams College Visiting Artists Series. A disciple of Miles Davis, jazz trumpeter Wallace Roney has been playing with the likes of Ornette Coleman, Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins, and Dizzy Gillespie since he was 16. At Brooks–Rogers Recital Hall. music.williams.edu

APR. 17–20: LEXINGTON/CONCORD, Patriots’ Day Weekend. Minute Man National Historical Park pays tribute to the opening battle of the American Revolutionary War with parades, reenactments, and commemorative ceremonies, culminating in the Lexington Patriots’ Day Parade. nps.gov/mima/index.htm

APR. 18: CAMBRIDGE, Bookish Ball & Shakespeare’s Birthday Celebration. Bookstore strolls, live music, Shakespearean performances, and birthday cake are among the highlights of

Florence Griswold Museum

Step back in time as you visit the famed home of the Lyme Art Colony, take in American art exhibitions at the Krieble Gallery and wander the historic gardens and riverfront that inspired a generation of artists.

this family-friendly Harvard Square festival. harvardsquare.com

APR. 18–19: WOODS HOLE, Model Boat Show. An enthusiast’s dream, with scores of model boats on display. See historical representations, creative designs, racing boats, tugboats, war boats, pleasure boats, and more. Talk with the builders, listen to the presentations, sail your own model, and more. 508-5487270; woodsholemuseum.org

APR. 20: BOSTON, 119th Boston Marathon. Boston Strong and still running, so come by to cheer on the participants as they push themselves along the route, up Heartbreak Hill, and across the finish line. 617-236-1652; baa.org

APR. 20: STURBRIDGE, Patriots’ Day. Learn how the start of the Revolutionary War affected a small New England village. The Sturbridge militia will muster on the common and perform musket demonstrations; plus fife-and-drum music, a chance to “meet and greet” a Minuteman and a Loyalist and learn about the differences in their uniforms and beliefs, and more. 508-347-0323; osv.org

APR. 23–26: WALTHAM, Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. Brandeis University’s campus blooms with creativity and community during a weekend of free presentations of works by national and regional artists, as well as faculty and students. 781-736-5008; brandeis.edu/arts/festival

APR. 24–25: NORFOLK, Friends of the Norfolk Public Library Book & Bake Sale. With more than 30,000 fiction and nonfiction books all categorized and alphabetized, this sale is too big for the library, so peruse the selections (and a goodly selection of baked treats) at the Norfolk DPW garage. 508-528-9690; norfolk booksale.com

APR. 24–26: MANSFIELD, 71st Annual New England Folk Festival. A whole lot of music, dance (participatory and performance), and crafts, plus a variety of fine foods, kids’ activities, informational sessions, and more, all at the local middle and high school. 617-2991590; neffa.org

APR. 25: WALTHAM, Sheepshearing Festival at Gore Place. At one of the great estates of the Federal period, see Border collies show off their skills herding sheep, plus shearing and

WELL WORTH THE DRIVE

APRIL 10–12

Monadnock International Film Festival

Keene, New Hampshire

Downtown Keene comes alive with feature films, documentaries, and short flicks from around the world, plus juried shorts by New Hampshire filmmakers. Plenty of parties, panels, and meet-and-greet sessions to fill the time between showings. The Jonathan Daniels Award is presented annually to a socially conscious filmmaker who uses the medium in a transformative manner. 603-757-3929; moniff.org

spinning demonstrations, live music, historical reenactments, an 80-booth craft fair, many delicious food offerings, and more. 781-894-5745; goreplace.org/sheepshearing.htm

APR. 27: AMHERST, Daffodil Fun Run. As part of the town’s Daffodil Days celebration, this 5K fundraiser for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Hampshire County attracted more than 800 runners last year and is hoping to crack 1,000 this time around. The event ends with a barbecue and family events in Kendrick Park, amid daffodils aplenty. 413-259-3345; facebook.com/daffodilfunrun

NEW HAMPSHIRE

MAR. 6–8: NORTH CONWAY, 18th Annual Hannes Schneider Meister Cup. Combining the best of skiing today with the warm nostalgia of yesterday, this competition honors the father of modern ski instruction, with proceeds going to the New England Ski

WELL WORTH THE DRIVE

MARCH 21, APRIL 18

Early Spring Bird Walks

Providence, Rhode Island

With guides from the Museum of Natural History & Planetarium, explore Roger Williams Park as colorful spring migrants arrive and winter birds prepare to depart. 401-785-9457; providenceri.com/museum

Museum. Put together a team and join in the fun or come to cheer on competitors from near and far. A silent auction, vintage-clothing competition, ice-carving contest, and torchlight parade round out the festivities. 603356-5543; cranmore.com

MAR. 7: GORHAM, Starlit Snowshoe Tour. Get in on the last scheduled winter walk across the glimmering snow at Great Glen Trails. Join an AMC naturalist on a guided nighttime snowshoe walk, using your senses and the natural light (but no flashlights) to navigate the trails. Reservation required. 603-4662333; greatglentrails.com

MAR. 7–8: CONCORD/NEWMARKET, Mandolin Festival. A descendant of the ancient lute, the mandolin has been part of the world’s musical traditions for centuries. This event includes group lessons, workshops, and jam sessions, with evening concerts open to the public at Stone Church in Newmarket and at Concord Community Music School. 603-228-1196; ccmusicschool.org

MAR. 14–15: HENNIKER, 24th Annual Hawaiian Weekend. Pats Peak Ski Area invents its own tropical flavor with a weekend of live music, festive décor, loud shirts, hot-tubbing, contests, and much more. 603-428-3245; pats peak.com

MAR. 15: NEWBURY, Dummy Big Air Contest at Mount Sunapee. The concept is simple: Build a skiing or snowboarding dummy and then catapult it down the trail and off the ramp. Prizes for best design, best crash, and biggest air. 603-763-3500; mountsunapee.com

MAR. 21: MOUNT WASHINGTON VALLEY, March Maple Madness. Ticket holders can embark on a self-guided inn-to-inn tour sampling tasty delights both savory and sweet along the way. Collect the recipes, and participate in the scavenger hunt while discovering the sugaring process firsthand at various locations. bbinnsmwv.com

MAR. 21: PORTSMOUTH, “The Moth” Mainstage. Hear five storytellers in this flagship program of The Moth series, a staple of the literary and art scenes in New York and Los Angeles, and heard by a wide audience via

public radio and podcasts. 603-436-2400; themusichall.org, themoth.org

MAR. 28: BRETTON WOODS, Annual Beach Party at Bretton Woods. Celebrate spring skiing with this rocking beach-on-snow event. If skiing in your bathing suit is on your bucket list, this is the event for you! 603-278-3320; bretton woods.com

MAR. 28: TAMWORTH, Maple Sugaring at Remick Country Doctor Farm & Museum. Sap boiling and tree-tapping demos, sugar-onsnow tasting, a delicious assortment of mapleinfused food items, horse-drawn wagon rides, live music, and additional activities sure to keep old and young entertained, all at this authentic farm and museum, once the home of an early-20th-century rural physician. 603323-7591; remickmuseum.org

MAR. 28–29: DURHAM, Seacoast Home & Garden Show. Now in its 21st year of showcasing the latest products and services for your home and garden. Shop at the artisans’ marketplace, attend gardening seminars, and don’t miss the “Taste of the Seacoast Meet the Chefs” cooking series, featuring some of the seacoast’s top culinary talents. 866-295-6438; seacoast.newenglandexpos.com

MAR. 28–29: STATEWIDE, 20th Annual New Hampshire Maple Weekend. More than 100 sugarhouses across the Granite State invite you to stop by for a peek into the sugaring process. Enjoy samples and various activities; see the Web site for a map of participating maple producers. nhmapleproducers.com

MAR. 29: MANCHESTER, St. Patrick’s Parade. The city salutes the Irish come rain or shine with a parade stepping off at noon. Nonperishable food items will be collected during the parade to support New Horizons. See the Web site for donation details. saintpatsnh.com

MAR. 29–30: LACONIA, Craft Show. A variety of talented artisans will be displaying their products at Opechee Conference Center. Find items to freshen home décor, to accessorize an outfit, to give as gifts for spring events, or to simply enjoy—a fine variety awaits. 603-5284014; joycescraftshows.com

APR. 3: PETERBOROUGH, Red Molly. Weaving together the threads of American music, from folk and bluegrass to ballads and honky-tonk, this vocal trio is known for their songwriting, musicianship, and especially their gorgeous harmonies. Reserve tickets in advance for this show at Peterborough Players Theater. 603-827-2905; pfmsconcerts.org

APR. 8–11: MANCHESTER, MQX Quilt Festival. At the Center of NH/Radisson Hotel, anyone who enjoys quilt artistry and creativity is encouraged to sign up for a class; topics include piecing, design, art, robotic quilting, and more. View the beautiful quilts on display in the exhibit hall, purchase supplies, and chat with the vendors. mqxshow.com

APR. 11: DURHAM, UNH Therapeutic Riding

Program Spring Fling & Auction. This fundraiser for the program, held at Holloway Commons, offers a night of dinner, door prizes, entertainment (including a horseracing game), and hundreds of silent auction items up for bid. 603-862-0131; equine.unh .edu/trp

APR. 17–19: MANCHESTER, Made in NH Expo. Try and buy it! For 20 years, the Expo has offered a variety of quality products proudly made in the Granite State. Discover fantastic treats and sweets, pet products, jewelry,

wood products, leather goods, service businesses, and much more at the Center of NH/ Radisson Hotel. millyardcommunications.com

APR. 18–19: LEBANON, Five Colleges Book Sale. A spring tradition since 1962, held at Lebanon High School’s gym. Book aficionados will find 35–40,000 titles on all topics, plus maps, prints, ephemera, and CDs/ DVDs; sealed bids for special items. 603428-3311; five-collegesbooksale.org

RHODE ISLAND

MAR. 10: PROVIDENCE, Neil Diamond at Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Get in on one of only three New England stops on the singer/songwriter’s 2015 world tour. Featuring songs from his new studio album, Melody Road, as well as a selection of classic favorites. 401-331-6700; dunkindonutscenter.com

MAR. 14: NEWPORT, St. Patrick’s Parade. The parade starts at City Hall and features two full hours of pipe bands, marching bands, fifeand-drum corps, clowns, reenactment units, and a host of local, state, and regional organizations. Then stick around for family-style, alcohol-free entertainment with Irish step dancers, pirates, live Irish music, face painting, contests, giveaways, and more. 401-8465081; newportirish.com

MAR. 31–APR. 26: BRISTOL, Daffodil Days. The beautiful estate of Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum is resplendent with more than 10,000 blooms. Enjoy the sight, the fragrance, and activities ranging from workshops to afternoon teas. 401-253-2707; blithewold.org

APR. 5–8: PROVIDENCE, The Home Show. With a bigger and better house to tour, landscapes to walk, professional seminars, exhibits, cooking demonstrations, and an Energy Expo, this show continues to reestablish itself as one of the best going after 65 years. 401-458-6000; ribahomeshow.com

APR. 11–12: KINGSTON, Swan Lake. Heritage Ballet presents a full-length performance of the classic fairy tale, featuring Swan Queen Odette, Prince Siegfried, and the sorcery, betrayal, and love that unite them for eternity. 401-762-4545; stadiumtheatre.com

APR. 21–26: PROVIDENCE/WARWICK, Southeast New England Film, Music & Arts Festival. With screenings at locations in both cities, a juried art show at Warwick Museum of Art, and musical performances to boot, this event brings people together through three artistic media. 401-203-7363; senefest.com

APR. 25: WESTERLY, Pawcatuck River Duck Race. 20,000 rubber ducks are dumped en masse into the Pawcatuck River. Buy a duck for a chance to win one of more than 90 prizes. Children’s games, rides, food, and other activities round out the fun, with proceeds going to more than 40 local charities. 401-596-7761; westerlychamber.org

APR. 30–MAY 3: PROVIDENCE, Eat Drink RI Festival. Featuring a star-studded line-up of more than 80 farmers, chefs, bartenders, and food and drink artisans from across the state, this popular festival returns to downtown Providence for a fourth year. Tastings, demonstrations, and plenty of dining and cocktail opportunities, culminating in a Grand Brunch. eatdrinkri.com

VERMONT

FEB. 28–MAR. 1: BRATTLEBORO, Circus Spectacular. This amazing annual gala—and major fundraiser—hosted by the New England Center for Circus Arts features professional performers providing a fun evening of highflying entertainment at historic Latchis Theatre. 802-254-9780; necenterforcircusarts.org

MAR. 7–8: BURLINGTON, 20th Annual Home Show. Join more than 10,000 visitors at the Sheraton Conference Center for Vermont’s largest home show. More than 200 booths, representing the region’s finest builders, remodelers, and businesses offering all things home-related. 800-237-6024; homeshows.com

MAR. 14: LUDLOW, Sugar Daze. When the sap starts running, Okemo Mountain Resort taps into some sweet sounds with a free concert series, culminating in an outdoor musical extravaganza at the Jackson Gore courtyard. 800-786-5366; okemo.com

MAR. 14: MIDDLEBURY, Vermont Chili Festival. There are activities for all ages, but chili is at center stage as dozens of restaurants and caterers gather in the historic downtown to compete for top honors. Vote for your favorite while enjoying live music, street performances, face painting, and a beverage tent offering local ciders and beer. 802-388-4126; vtchilifest.com

MAR. 20–29: MONTPELIER, Green Mountain Film Festival. This annual event, presented by Focus on Film, a Vermont organization devoted to film promotion, brings features, documentaries, shorts, and animations from near and far to the screen at several venues in Montpelier and nearby St. Johnsbury. 802262-3423; gmffestival.org

MAR. 21–22: STRATTON MOUNTAIN, 24 Hours of Stratton. The ski lifts at Stratton Mountain operate all night as hundreds of skiers and riders (6- to 12-person teams) work together to rack up runs as a fundraiser for the Stratton Foundation, supporting programs providing food, housing, and heat to underprivileged families. Spectators cheer as racers sprint to the start. Enjoy live music, games, a midnight NASTAR race, and more to keep the party going until the finish-line frenzy at noon on Sunday. 800-787-2886; stratton.com

MAR. 23: SOUTH BURLINGTON, Spring Book & Ephemera Sale. At the Sheraton Hotel, discover rare and out-of-print titles offered by 30 antiquarian booksellers from around the region, along with antique maps, vintage postcards, and ephemera. vermontisbook country.com

MAR. 28: RANDOLPH, Mini Mud Variety Show. Now in its eighth year, this annual event provides the region’s young talents with an opportunity to perform on the main stage at Chandler Music Hall. All featured performers are students up to 18 years of age. 802-7289402; chandler-arts.org

MAR. 29: WEST DOVER, Bud Light Duct Tape Derby. This signature Snow Mountain event has grown into a fun and unique tradition. The challenge? Tap your inner McGyver to build (and race) a craft made only of cardboard, duct tape, zip ties, and paint. 800-2457669; mountsnow.com

APR. 4: KILLINGTON, Pond Skimming Championships. Are they brave or just crazy? Either way, skiers and riders will put their skills to the test as they attempt to make it across the pond. Competitors will be judged on skim, costume, splash, and crowd cheer. Almost as fun for spectators as it is for participants. 802-422-6201; killington.com

APR. 4: WOODSTOCK, Baby Animal Day. Meet the newest additions at Billings Farm & Museum, a working dairy operation. While you’re there, go on a wagon ride, learn about heirloom seeds, and tour the historic 1890 farmhouse. But be sure to save plenty of time for the lambs, chicks, and calves who are the stars of this show. 802-457-2355; billingsfarm.org

APR. 18–19: ESSEX JUNCTION, Vermont Home & Garden Show. If you’re considering building or remodeling, landscaping or gardening, come to Champlain Valley Expo and seek advice from the experts, while discovering the latest innovations in products and services. 802-876-6200; vthomeandgardenshow.com

APR. 24–25: BARRE, Central Vermont Quilt Show. More than 50 quilts in a variety of styles and sizes will be on display at historic Old Labor Hall. Enjoy demonstrations, shop for supplies, view special displays, and cast your vote for Viewers’ Choice. 802-476-6908; centralvermontquiltshow.com

WELL WORTH THE DRIVE

MARCH 28–29

Maple Open House Weekend

Statewide: Vermont

It’s a celebration of maple-syrup season and an opportunity to visit one or more sugarhouses throughout the Green Mountain State to learn about Vermont’s first agricultural crop of the year. Check the Web site for an open house near you. 802-763-7435; vermontmaple.org

Hope Springs Eternal

APR. 24–26: ST. ALBANS, Vermont Maple Festival. The 49th annual celebration of the sweet-and-sticky season returns to downtown St. Albans, with a pancake breakfast, road race, carnival, variety shows, and parade— and, of course, plenty of tasty maple treats. 802-524-5800; vtmaplefestival.org

APR. 25: ST. JOHNSBURY, World Maple Festival. Celebrate the history and heritage of the maple industry with events within the downtown area. Pancake breakfast, road race, street festival, live entertainment, and the crowning of the 2015 World Maple Champion, plus fine craft items and tasty treats for sale from more than 100 vendors. worldmaplefestival.org

APR. 25–26: ESSEX JUNCTION, Everything Equine & Canine. Vermont’s “Dog & Pony Show” at Champlain Valley Expo is an entertaining and educational family event for equestrians and dog lovers at all levels. Featuring dog and horse shows and more than 100 commercial and informational booths, as well as a full schedule of informative seminars, demonstrations, and entertainment. cvexpo.org

Call ahead to confirm dates, times, and possible admission fees. To submit an event online, go to: YankeeMagazine.com/submitevent

To find more events in your area, visit: YankeeMagazine.com/events

Down the springtime hills there spills

A rivulet of daffodils. The passing public sneaks a peek … Perhaps a gold mine sprang a leak! —D.A.W.

To advertise please call Steve Hall at 800-736-1100, ext. 320

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We have received complaints about an unauthorized company targeting our subscriberswith an invalid renewal/new order offer.

Please ignore any notices you receive from any company besides Yankee Magazine. If you have any questions, please call us toll-free 1-800-288-4284.

YANKEE classifieds

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Down to the Sea

Martha Hale Harvey documented the landscapes and people of turn-of-the-century Cape Ann.

mong Martha Hale Harvey’s hundreds of photos of Cape Ann life is this portrait of her husband, George Wainwright Harvey (1855–1930), an oil and watercolor artist renowned for his landscape and maritime scenes.

Born in Gloucester in 1862, Martha Hale Rogers married her fellow Gloucester native in 1884. They settled temporarily in the Netherlands so that George could study painting; he was particularly drawn to Dutch Impressionism.

When the couple returned home, they set up adjoining studios in Annisquam, a picturesque waterfront neighborhood where the Annisquam River flows into Ipswich

Bay, north of downtown Gloucester. There, until her death in 1949, Martha continued photographing her favorite subjects: sailboats and fishing vessels, lighthouses and churches, neighbors and visitors, intimate scenes and coastal panoramas, and always, always, the restless and ever-changing sea.

—Eileen Terrill

Historic New England is now the keeper of a collection of more than 2,000 images of early New England life, mostly glass-plate negatives, amassed by Yankee founder Robb Sagendorph in the 1960s. The collection dates from the 1890s to the 1930s; many of the images are attributed to photojournalist Alton H. Blackington (1893–1963) and landscape photographer Martha Hale Harvey (1862–1949). In 1994, Yankee donated the archive to Historic New England. See more shots from the collection at: historicnewengland.org

George Wainwright Harvey and His Cat at Lobster Cove, Annisquam, Massachusetts, 1895

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